Broken Mirror: New War
by Talespinner69
Summary: What...what if Lincoln's time in the city that he ran away to did NOT end? This will explore what would happen if the events of the sole Loud boy running away from home transpired as such. (Rated M to be safe/because of future content)
1. Chapter 1

Pre-chapter author's note: This isn't a direct sequal to 'Broken Mirror' ('Restore Image' is the direct sequal to that story). Rather, this is a sort-of 'what if' kind of deal that explores what it would be like if Lincoln's time in the city that he ran away to continued beyond the events of the last chapter in that story. I'm doing this story partly because a lot of you seemed to like 'Broken Mirror' and I figured that some of you would appreciate this story, and partly because the more I thought about a story like this and developed the plot in my mind, the more I wanted to bring this story to life. I have **_NO_** idea how well this story will catch on, but I guess that there is only one real way to find out. (Warning: Much like the original 'Broken Mirror', this story will contain blood, violence and strong swearing. However, this story will also contain mentions of suicide, horrific massive events of violence, strong themes of racism, and multiple named characters from the series proper **_will_** bite it.) So, without further ado, here's the first chapter of 'Broken Mirror: New War'.

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Broken Mirror: New War

Chapter one: Not Returning

Lincoln Loud, who has long since ceased referring to himself as a member of that family, was shocked to see that Ronnie Anne Santiago, someone who was close to him back in his old life back in Royal Woods, was in the city that he ran away to after he was compelled to do so after his family decried him as bad luck. The boy without a family saw the Hispanic tomboy enter the apartment building that was part of the same building that also had the bodega store that Hector Casagrande, a nice old man who has shown Lincoln kindness, owns and operates.

To add another degree to the shock that Lincoln was feeling, he also saw that Vanzilla, the ancient family vehicle owned by his ex-family, was parked outside of the bodega store slash apartment building. After a bit of thought, Lincoln realized that, if Ronnie Anne was in this city, then her older brother Bobby was most likely here as well. Bobby and Lincoln's oldest ex-sister Lori were an item; given the dedication the two seventeen-year-olds had for each other, Lincoln assumed that Lori drove all the way up here just to be with her precious Boo-Boo Bear.

…Feh, typical. It didn't surprise the boy without a family that his oldest ex-sister would show such care for her boyfriend. As for the boy without a family himself, he might as well be what his ex-dog Charles left in the backyard. In fact, Lincoln wouldn't put it past Lori if she decided to blab to Bobby about how Lincoln was quote unquote 'bad luck'; Lincoln also had reason to believe that Hector Casagrande might be a relative of Bobby's and Ronnie Anne's (remembering something Hector said when he first met him, Lincoln connected some dots and believed that Hector was Ronnie Anne's grandfather), and soon the Casagrandes would likewise view Lincoln as if he bore a black spot.

Not wanting to even bother with them anymore, Lincoln turned around and began to walk away. However, he didn't get all that far before he heard a familiar female voice call out, "Hey, you're that kid from before!" Turning around, the boy without a family saw that Carlota girl from the high school fundraiser come running up to him. "Yeah, yeah you're totally that kid from before!" Carlota said to Lincoln in a cheerful and friendly tone, "How have you been?"

Sighing in a resigned, tired tone, Lincoln said, "I'm…fine. Really tired, but otherwise fine." Trying to make conversation with Carlota so as to not seem rude, Lincoln asked, "Did…did your school ever try again with the fundraiser after what happened with all of those kids coming in and wrecking the place?" Lincoln is speaking about a local gang of rather violent youths, all of which were in Lincoln's general age group.

The violent youth gang had committed various crimes, up to and including murder. For reasons that escape Lincoln and most everyone else in the city, the violent youth gang were able to do whatever the hell they wanted with impunity, as the local law enforcement seemed completely unwilling to give those violent youth gang members so much as a slap on the wrist.

…Lincoln gave every last member of the violent youth gang _far more_ than a mere slap on the wrist. In fact, Lincoln had just gotten out of yet another confrontation with those gang members; he tracked down two members of the gang and saw that they had somehow managed to drag Ronnie Anne into their hideout in an abandoned building somewhere in the city, with the intent of making her join under threat of physical violence.

Before the two gang members knew what was going on, Lincoln made his move, silencing both of them forever. Ronnie Anne had no idea that it was Lincoln, as he was wearing his get-up that he had for when he did his 'work' in the city. In fact, he had even taking to leaving calling cards that he made himself; they were made on index cards, a capital letter 'B' was in the upper left corner, while a capital letter 'M' was in the lower right corner, and in the middle was a drawing of a hand mirror, with the mirror part broken.

Hence why everyone in the city has taken to referring to him as 'Broken Mirror'.

Right after he had saved Ronnie Anne from being forced to join the gang, a thirteen-year-old girl who talked like Lincoln's musically inclined ex-sister came in and saw what was going on. The girl said that the two gang members wanted her to join, but she hadn't accepted yet. Lincoln allowed the girl to go after she promised not to join the gang; he also salvaged a ring from one of the gang members he killed and gave it to the thirteen-year-old girl, as the girl said that she had her eye on the ring for quite some time.

Lincoln knew that his work as Broken Mirror was done; he heard from the two gang members who tried to make Ronnie Anne join that, if both she and the thirteen-year-old girl joined the gang, the gang would have a total of four members. Since Lincoln killed the two actual gang members and neither Ronnie Anne or the thirteen-year-old girl joined, that means that the gang has been completely wiped out. Never again would a group of overly violent youths that were allowed to make the city their personal stomping grounds give trouble to the innocent civilians. Never again would the gang damage property, or steal from others, or assault older people.

…Or kill innocent kids.

But Lincoln was letting his mind wander. Lincoln looked up to Carlota, who was saying, "…on Friday of the following week," Carlota said. With an amused smirk, the older Hispanic girl continued, "You know, my friends and I could have used your help again. It was really sweet of you when you tried to help clean up the mess that those punks made."

Lincoln suddenly remembered that Carlota was talking about how she and some of her friends hired Lincoln to help them set up for their part of their school's fundraiser. "I…" Lincoln said, trailing off a bit because he wasn't quite sure what to say. Shaking his head gently a bit, Lincoln said, "I'm sorry."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Carlota said in a reassuring tone. Ruffling Lincoln's hair, Carlota said, "I bet you were scared that those punks would have shown up again." Shaking her head gently in an understanding manner, Carlota continued, "I can't really blame you for that." Removing her hand from the top of Lincoln's head, Carlota said as she jerked a thumb over her shoulder, "You said you were tired, right? My grandfather's place is across the street, so if you want, you can stop by for a bit."

Looking behind Carlota, the boy without a family saw she was pointing out the apartment building/bodega store that he saw Ronnie Anne go into earlier. This surprised Lincoln; was Carlota related to Ronnie Anne as well? What other family does she have in this city? …No doubt Carlota would jump on the 'Lincoln is bad luck' band wagon that Lori undoubtedly got Bobby, Ronnie Anne and the rest of their folks to join.

Shaking his head gently, Lincoln said, "No thanks. I'll be fine."

With a look of mild concern on her face, Carlota asked, "Are you sure?"

Nodding weakly in the affirmative, Lincoln replied tiredly, "I'm…I'm sure. I just need to get going." Turning around, the boy without a family walked away. However, Lincoln didn't walk all that far; about ten to twelve feet away, Lincoln stumbled, fell against a wall and…after regaining his balance, stood himself back up properly and continued to walk away, defying the exhaustion he was feeling as a result of everything he did today. Carlota, although concerned as she saw the white-haired boy stumble a bit, respected his decision and allowed him to continue on his way.

…

Lincoln eventually found a safe place to rest, an abandoned building that used to be one of the hideouts for the violent youth gang before Lincoln…became the new resident. There was some sort of office room on the building's second floor, and that room had been converted into a bedroom of sorts. Granted, the bed was nothing more than a mattress on a box-spring that was on the floor, but at least it was something. Lincoln even managed to gather a few pillows and a comforter to make resting on the bed more comfortable.

After he checked to make sure everything in his 'home' was secure, Lincoln went to his bedroom, laid down on the pitiful excuse he had for a bed and proceeded to allow his exhaustion to take him off to the realm of sleep. As he drifted off, the boy without a family felt that he could afford to take something of a break; the violent youth gang was no more, the innocent people of the city were safe, and what made Lincoln especially at ease was that he was not exposed to a group of brainless, heartless monsters that mistreated him at their leisure.

Lincoln, as he began falling asleep, thought that things were going to look up.

* * *

The following day, Lincoln was walking back from helping out a kind elderly Jewish woman who ran a thrift shop. She even paid Lincoln twenty dollars for his help and hard work. Lincoln thanked the elderly Jewish woman before he respectfully took his leave. Anywho, as Lincoln walked through a park, he felt a bit hungry. Luckily, there was a convenience store near the park, and Lincoln had a fair bit of money on-hand, even without considering the twenty dollars he had just earned.

After buying a cinnamon roll and a bottle of strawberry-flavored sports drink, Lincoln walked over to the park, found a bench, sat down, and proceeded to consume his purchases. As he ate and drank, the boy without a family saw a football land near the bench he sat on. In fact, the football actually landed near Lincoln's feet. Curious, the white-haired boy got up and with his right hand (which was free since he finished his cinnamon roll) picked up the football. "…Huh," Lincoln said aloud as he considered the football. As he slowly turned the football around, he heard an older man's voice call out, "Excuse me!"

Looking up, Lincoln saw two people of Hispanic heritage come running up to him. The first was a man that Lincoln estimated to be no older than his ex-father; this man wore glasses with a black-colored square frame, a white long-sleeved shirt under a green sweater vest, brown pants, and brown shoes. Lincoln suddenly remembered that this was that Carlos man who was talking to that elderly Caucasian man Henry over at the local Burpin' Burger that one time. The other person, the one with Carlos, was a boy who Lincoln estimated to be maybe a year or two older than him; this boy wore a yellow shirt, dark blue shorts, white socks and blue shoes. Lincoln could tell that the boy had some sort of mental handicap.

"Sorry about that," Carlos said to Lincoln apologetically, "My son Carlos Jr. put a bit too much effort in throwing the football."

"Oh, so this is yours," Lincoln remarked to Carlos and the boy, revealed to be his son Carlos Jr., as he held up the football. Gently tossing the football to the younger Carlos, Lincoln said, "Here you go."

"You wanna play with us?" Carlos Jr. asked, "Mom doesn't wanna toss the football around with me and dad, so it's only the two of us."

"Now son," Carlos Sr. began to the younger Carlos, "This boy has probably got something else that he wants to do. You shouldn't try and drag him into joining us."

"Actually," Lincoln replied, "I've got nothing going on right now. I don't see any problem with joining you guys, provided that's okay." Carlos Jr. cheered while Carlos Sr. chuckled in a manner that conveyed some amount of amusement with the situation.

"Well I don't see why not," Carlos Sr. said to Lincoln. Gesturing for the boy without a family to follow him and his son, Carlos Sr. said, "Why don't you come with me and Junior here? My wife's over in the direction we came from, and she's got the picnic basket with her. We ought to be heading back over there so Frida doesn't worry about Junior and I too much." Nodding in agreement with the kind Hispanic man, Lincoln proceeded to follow the father and son pair over to another area of the park.

* * *

Lincoln, Carlos Sr. and Carlos Jr. ended up tossing the football around for the next few hours. The boy without a family actually had quite a bit of fun with the two guys. Lincoln even learned a bit about them; Carlos Sr. was something of a bibliophile, as evident by the fact that he was trying to read a book while playing with Lincoln and Carlos Jr. at the same time. This resulted in the book that the older Carlos was reading being forced into his face when the younger Carlos threw the football while shouting, "Catch, dad!" The football accidentally smacked into the book, forcing the book far closer to Carlos Sr.'s face that he normally likes. Lincoln, Carlos Jr., Carlos Sr.'s wife Frida and even Carlos Sr. himself all found this worth laughing about.

Speaking of Frida, she sat on a nearby bench as she watched her husband and son play with a boy who she automatically assumed was a new friend of Carlos Jr.'s. Like her husband and son, Frida was a person of Hispanic heritage. She had long black hair and she wore a pink dress that had a green pattern of some sort at the top, a pair of orange earrings, yellow pearl bracelets on each wrist, and a pair of brown shoes. Every so often, Lincoln noticed that Frida took pictures of what was going on, such as when Carlos Jr. made a rather impressive catch where he jumped into the air to catch the football as he dad threw it to him.

Carlos Jr. was the last of this family trio. From what Lincoln was able to learn after Frida told him, Carlos Jr. was thirteen-years-old, putting the Hispanic boy in the same age as Lincoln's athletic older ex-sister, a girl whose name Lincoln was in no mood to utter anytime soon. Also, Lincoln's earlier guess of Carlos Jr. having some sort of disability was confirmed when Frida explained that her son had Down Syndrome. The boy without a family didn't know too much about this, but luckily for him, the city's local library should have a book on the subject, so he should be able to read up on it in between the various odd jobs he does to earn his living.

"Wow, we ought to get going," Frida said to her husband and son as she looked at the time on a cell phone she pulled out of her purse, "It's six-thirty-two in the evening."

"Six-thirty-two?!" Carlos Sr. repeated in a shocked tone, "Geez, we stayed more than an hour longer that we were supposed to! My mother will get mad if the three of us are late for dinner just because we lost track of time!"

"Oh, I'm sorry if me coming over to toss the football around with you distracted you guys," Lincoln said in an apologetic tone.

"Oh, it's not your fault, young man," Carlos Sr. replied in a kind and reassuring tone, "It's just that my parents live with my family, and my mother likes to handle the cooking, but she's a bit strict when it comes to everyone being home on time for dinner."

"This night would have been the first night that my sister and her kids would have joined us," Frida began, "She was considering moving her family here to the city to live with us, as she didn't want her kids to be lonely while she was at work, and she figured that they'd do better if they had their cousins to hang out with." With a sigh that sounded a bit resigned, Frida continued, "But my sister ultimately decided against moving her family out here. Then again, my dad told her and her children over the phone everything he heard about this violent youth gang that's been terrorizing the city. When my sister and her kids were over here yesterday, my niece claimed that two gang members were trying to force her to join."

"…Really?" Lincoln asked as this woman's story started to sound like it was slowly mixing with his exploits from yesterday on how he saved Ronnie Anne from being forced to join the gang.

"My niece also told me some masked person saved her by killing the gang members and letting her go unharmed," Frida went on.

"Did she say anything about the killer's appearance?" Carlos Sr. asked.

Shaking her head gently in the negative, Frida replied, "Sorry, dear, but she didn't get anything out before my sister took her and our nephew back with her to Royal Woods." Having heard the Hispanic woman mention Royal Woods just now caught Lincoln's attention; Frida and both guys named Carlos were relatives of Ronnie Anne's. The boy without a family didn't get complete and total confirmation, but he could tell that he was right.

"A darn shame," Carlos Sr. remarked, "If she did say anything about the guy's appearance, then I'd have an idea of what he looked like so that if I ever ran into him, I could thank him."

"Thank him?" Frida repeated in a confused tone that carried a hint of shock. Giving her husband a serious look, the Hispanic woman continued, "Carlos, why would you thank a _killer_?"

"Frida, look," Carlos Sr. began, "You know full well my stance on that violent g-" The older Carlos was cut off when Frida's cellphone rang. Frida answered it, got a bit of shouting from over the phone (from where Lincoln stood, it sounded like it came from a woman older than Frida), then after she ended the call, Frida looked to her family.

"That was your mom," Frida said, "She wants us home for dinner now."

"Alright, then," Carlos Sr. replied, "It is getting a bit late, after all." Turning to face Lincoln, Carlos Sr. said, "Thanks again for playing around a bit with us."

"Can you join us next time?" Carlos Jr. asked.

"If…if I run into you guys, sure," Lincoln replied, a bit surprised that these people were kind enough to show him such consideration. The three family members said their good-byes to the boy without a family before they took their leave from the park, leaving Lincoln alone. Since he had nothing else to do, the white-haired boy took his leave.

…

As Lincoln walked back to the abandoned building that he's taken up as his new home in this city, he thought about the kind family that he hung out with at the park earlier. They showed Lincoln no scorn, readily welcoming him to join them for a simple game of catch in the park. The boy without a family thought that, if he could pick what family he was born into, he would pick those kind people.

A well-read albeit mildly absentminded father who was patient and encouraging. A mother who took every opportunity she could get to preserve family memories forever with her camera. A fun older brother who was young at heart. Not to mention grandparents, with the grandfather at least being someone Lincoln could count on (Lincoln was able to connect the dots and figure out that Hector was Carlos Sr.'s dad), a kind older sister (Carlota was likewise connected), an aunt and two cousins. Lincoln wished that he had been born into a family such as that. He bet he would have liked it.

He bet that they wouldn't have decried him as bad luck.

* * *

The following morning, Lincoln was grabbing breakfast at the local Burpin' Burger, although his breakfast consisted of some sort of French Toast sticks and a large cup of sports drink. As he had his small breakfast, the boy without a family overheard something on the wall-mounted TV. Luckily for him, another customer in the Burpin' Burger at the time asked for the TV's volume to be turned up so the news could be heard. As such, Lincoln heard what the news was saying.

"…Arrested late yesterday evening following their assault on a local elderly woman," the news anchor said as the pictures of two young adult people, one a Caucasian male and the other an African American female, were shown on the news. The news then showed the picture of an elderly woman who was clearly Hispanic. "Witnesses to the assault report that the two assailants were shouting obscenities at the elderly woman, degrading her for her ethnicity. This is yet another instance of the brewing trouble that's arising in this city where citizens of Hispanic heritage are on the recieving end of serious hate crimes. We'll bring you more on this story as it develops."

Lincoln turned his attention away from the TV, returning his attention to his meager meal. This whole business that's pitting people of different races against each other sounds like far greater trouble than the deal he recently finished involving the now wiped-out violent youth gang. Then again, instead of violent youths committing crimes, this racial thing seemed to be something between adults and other adults. And the local police are actually getting involved this time.

Lincoln figured that Broken Mirror didn't need to get involved here.

END, BROKEN MIRROR: NEW WAR CHAPTER ONE

Author's notes:

The idea for this story popped up into my head while I was still working on a number of other Loud House stories. Also, I saw in the comments of 'Broken Mirror' how some of you were disappointed with its relatively short length. So, I figured that some of you might appreciate this continuation of the story. …Well, it's sort-of a continuation of 'Broken Mirror'. Basically, this is what would happen if Lincoln didn't collapse from exhaustion in front of Carlota in the early part of the last chapter of 'Broken Mirror', which ended up allowing for the white-haired boy to be reunited with his estranged family.

Anywho, the next chapter will see Lincoln reconsider his stance on Broken Mirror getting involved in the whole deal of the blatant racism that's currently going on in the city, especially considering what ends up happening to one of the Casagrandes.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Broken Mirror: New War

Chapter two: Broken Return

Lincoln, the boy without a family, was walking along on the sidewalk somewhere in the city that he ran away to after he was compelled to leave his old life in Royal Woods behind after his ex-family decried him as bad luck. It was a lovely enough morning, and the white-haired boy was on his way to a local food pantry; the kind elderly Jewish woman whose thrift shop Lincoln helped out at yesterday told the owner slash manager of the food pan try, an elderly man who is also part of the city's Jewish community, that Lincoln was an odd jobs person and would be glad to help out sorting and organizing donated food.

Lincoln was told that he'd be paid ten dollars for working for the day, plus some food as well. Since this job would not only net the boy without a family some more on-hand funds but something to eat as well, he accepted. He only hoped that he wouldn't be given canned food, given that he lacks a can opener. He also doesn't have access to a working stove or a pot, so he can't cook much of anything either. Still, Lincoln would take what he would be given, partly so as to not seem rude, but mostly because given his current situation, he needs whatever he can get his hands on. Beggars can't be choosers and all that jazz.

Thankfully, the elderly Jewish woman who ran the thrift shop wrote down the address of the food pantry on the back of a business card, and after using a map feature on the internet over at the local library, Lincoln was able to write down a route that would take him to his destination. As he walked, Lincoln had to turn a corner. When he did, he saw out the corner of his vision that there was some sort of festival going on. Figuring he could spare a minute or to because he just wanted to know what was going on, Lincoln made his way over.

When he got close enough, he saw décor that reminded him of Day of the Dead celebrations; Lincoln was familiar with Day of the Dead because of this one time when Ronnie Anne Santiago, a friend of his from his old life back in Royal Woods, Michigan, plus her older brother Bobby, took Lincoln and his oldest ex-sister to a Day of the Dead celebration that occurred somewhere in Royal Woods. Lincoln had a blast at that event, and not just because of all of the free snacks that he and the rest of the group got to enjoy; the white-haired boy was actually interested in everything that was going on for the Day of the Dead celebration, and Bobby, who had taken to being something of an older brother figure to Lincoln, was all too happy to answer every question that Lincoln had, not to mention explaining everything that Lincoln asked about.

As he got close, Lincoln heard a familiar adult male voice call out, "Oh, you're that boy that my son invited to play catch with us in the park yesterday!" Turning around, Lincoln saw Carlos Sr. come walking up. Gesturing to the festivities that were being set up, Carlos Sr. said while facing Lincoln, "I see that you were drawn to Hispanic Heritage Month festival that was being set up."

"Oh, so that's what this is all for," Lincoln remarked, "Sorry, but I saw what was going on here while I was on my way to something else, so I came by because I wanted to know what was going on here." Giving the older Carlos a curious look, Lincoln asked in an innocently curious tone, "Why are you here, sir?"

"Oh, I'm here with a class that I teach at the local college," Carlos Sr. explained, "I figured that coming to an event like this would be a nice little trip, not to mention it would help a few of them since they were assigned papers on Hispanic Heritage Month by some of their other professors."

"You're a college professor?" Lincoln asked, mildly surprised to learn what it was that the older Carlos did to earn a living.

Nodding once in the affirmative, Carlos Sr. continued, "I do indeed teach at the local college. In fact, my nephew Bobby is expecting to enroll at the college I teach at once he graduates High School." With a look of mild concentration on his face as he held a hand to his chin, Carlos Sr. continued, "I believe Bobby also said something about his girlfriend being interested in enrolling into the college I teach at as well. What did Bobby say his girlfriend's name was again?"

"I would have no idea," Lincoln said in a dry tone, the dryness of his tone easily masking the fact that he was lying, "I didn't even know you had a nephew, sir."

"Oh yeah," Carlos Sr. said as he went on, oblivious to the fact that the boy without a family was lying, "My nephew, Bobby Santiago. He's a great kid, albeit a bit absentminded sometimes." With a self-amused chuckle, Carlos Sr. continued, "But then again, who am I to make a comment about that?"

Lincoln made a humming sound that sounded like he was agreeing with the college professor, while nodding once in agreement. "So, you'll be here with your class at the event, sir?" Lincoln asked, making sure that he had everything straight.

"Yeah, although my wife and my oldest son will come by later," Carlos Sr. replied, "The rest of my kids would come, but by daughter is doing something with her friends, my second-oldest son is under the weather, and my youngest son is only two. Frida is afraid that the festival might be a bit too overstimulating for the little guy. At least my mom and dad are home to keep an eye on my youngest sons."

"Yeah, that sounds fair," Lincoln replied with a nod, "Well anywho, I have to get going. I'm actually set to help the owner and manager of a food pantry organize and store donated food that's being brought in today."

"Well aren't you a go-getter," Carlos Sr. remarked in an impressed tone, "That sounds like something I'd assign to one of my students as community service. Well don't let me stop you from doing your civic duty."

"Thanks," Lincoln said as he took his leave, getting back on track to head over to the local food pantry. The boy without a family enjoyed the talk that he just had with the older Carlos, although it bothered Lincoln that he lied to so kind a man. But the white-haired boy had a reason for his lying, a method to his madness.

…

As Lincoln was making his way to the food pantry, he made a turn on a corner, as that what the directions he wrote down while he was at the library told him. When Lincoln made his turn, he accidentally bumped into two grown men. "Oh! Sorry about that, sirs!" Lincoln said in an apologetic tone after he regained his bearings and looked up to the two men he bumped into. Both men were slim but healthy guys that looked to be in their mid to late twenties.

One was Caucasian and wore a dark blue baggy t-shirt, a pair of jeans and a pair of black shoes. He had somewhat scruffy brown hair that reached halfway down his neck. The other man of the pair was African American; he wore a white men's tank top, a pair of somewhat loose-fitting jeans that were held up with a belt, and white sneakers that looked like one of those kinds of sneakers that were viciously expensive. This second man had his hair in cornrows, and he had a little bit of a goatee going on.

"Nah, it's okay, little man," the African American man replied, "Where were you heading anyway?"

"To the food pantry," Lincoln explained, "I'm going to be working there today."

"Are you doing some sort of community service thing to earn extra credit at school?" the Caucasian man asked, a curious look on his face.

"Yeah," Lincoln replied, not wanting to go into detail about why he was actually heading over to the food pantry to work.

"Sorry about my friend and I bumping into you," the Caucasian man said, "But we got lost on our way to that Hispanic Heritage Month festival that's going on in town today. We were going to call a few friends over once we made our way there."

"Oh, the Hispanic Heritage Month festival?" Lincoln said in a mildly surprised tone, "I actually past by it earlier." Turning around, Lincoln pointed straight and said, "If you go straight in that direction, then take the first left you see, go straight down that road, then take the first right, you'll find the festival if you keep going straight."

"Thanks for the help, kid," the African American man replied before he and his friend took off in the direction Lincoln told them. With his business with the two men done, Lincoln continued to make his way to the local food pantry. He had work to do today, after all.

* * *

Lincoln enjoyed the quiet, easy pace of his job at the food pantry. After the work for the day was done, the kind elderly Jewish man who owned and ran the food pantry gave Lincoln ten dollars and a box that had eight packs of s'mores flavored toaster treats, telling Lincoln that it was donated by someone earlier. This relieved Lincoln, as he was worried that the food that he'd be given would be something that he couldn't open and/or wouldn't be consumable due to needing to be cooked first. He can eat a pack of toaster treats without toasting them in a toaster, and since the box he was given was an eight pack, it would last him for a while, although the boy without a family wasn't intending to have meals consisting solely of toaster treats for the next few nights.

As Lincoln was gearing up to leave, the pantry owner's wife came in, looking mildly panicked. "There's something terrible on the news, dear!" the pantry owner's wife nearly exclaimed, clearly looking worried.

"Wait, hold on," the pantry owner said as he walked over to a somewhat small TV that was on a table in the room that he, his wife and Lincoln were in. Picking up the remote, the pantry owner turned the TV on and switched it to the news.

"…On scene at the Hispanic Heritage Month festival that was being held earlier today," a news reporter that was reporting live from what looked like a ruined festival said as he was being filmed. Upon seeing the ruined remains of the festival on the news, along with hearing what the news reporter said, Lincoln's heart skipped a beat; there was an attack of some sort as the Hispanic Heritage Month festival. Carlos Sr. was there with a class of his he taught at the local college. He also said that his wife and oldest son would be coming by later.

The boy without a family was instantly worried.

"There are at least nine casualties and over twenty-seven injuries as a result of the riot that broke out here earlier," the news reporter said as he went on, "Perpetrated by a mob that was composed of angry rioters that were either Caucasian or African American acting in what was clearly an instance of more of the prolific discrimination that this city has been seeing as of late against its Hispanic population. Twelve arrests have been made in relation to most of the assaults and two arrests have been made in relation to the killings, although four suspects reported to have killed some of the victims are currently at large."

The news then showed pictures of the four men confirmed to have killed but were not arrested. Upon seeing the pictures, Lincoln's heart once again skipped a beat; two of the men that were shown were the Caucasian man and the African American man that he had given directions to earlier so that they could get to the festival and call in friends to come by.

Innocent people were hurt and killed, and it was Lincoln's fault.

"Sir, I have to go," Lincoln said to the kind elderly Jewish man that owned and ran the food pantry, drawing both his attention and the attention of his wife.

"Are you okay, young man?" the pantry owner asked.

"A friend of mine was attending the Hispanic Heritage Month festival earlier today," Lincoln explained, "I'm worried that he might have gotten hurt, or worse." This was actually a half-lie; Lincoln wasn't technically friends with Carlos Sr., who he knew would be at the festival. Lincoln wasn't technically friends with any of the Casagrandes, for that matter.

But the boy without a family _was_ worried about the kind professor. Lincoln was also worried about Frida and Carlos Jr., although he wasn't entirely sure if they were at the festival at the time it was attacked by the mob of angry rioters; Carlos Sr. did say that he was expecting his wife and oldest son to come by later, which technically meant that they weren't at the festival yet when the white-haired boy spoke to him earlier.

"Try to be safe, young man," the pantry owner replied in an understanding tone, "I'd hate for a kind young kid like yourself to get hurt." Lincoln nodded in thanks before he took his leave from the local food pantry.

* * *

It didn't take Lincoln long to reach what remained of the festival, although the boy without a family was rushing a little bit. Upon arriving, the scene that Lincoln saw horrified him; there were people being loaded into ambulances, others being given first-aid treatment in the field by paramedics, and over on the ground off to the side, a number of people laid under white sheets. The white-haired boy was sick to his stomach, knowing that, due to seeing the two men he gave directions to on the news as killers, this was his fault.

As Lincoln looked around, he saw something that both sickened him further and brought a measure of relief to him; Carlos Sr. was sitting on a bench, some minor injuries on the side of his head being treated by a paramedic. The kind professor was clearly in pain; he didn't even see Lincoln, given that his eyes were closed due to wincing from the pain. But Carlos Sr. was still alive. Looking around, Lincoln saw no sign of either Frida or Carlos Jr.; Lincoln chose to take this as a sign that neither the woman or her son made it to the festival, and that they were safe.

But still, there were many people injured, and more than a few never to return home again. The boy without a family even saw two emergency workers zip a body bag closed. None of the innocent people who came to the festival had this coming; they were here only to have fun, and for those whose heritage was being celebrated to, well, celebrate their heritage. But because of Lincoln giving directions to those two men he later saw on then news as killers, what would have otherwise been a fun day was messed up.

Messed up because of his mistake.

It wasn't the first time something was messed up due to a mistake on Lincoln's part; the white-haired boy made a number of mistakes, receiving the brunt of his ex-family's irritation every time. As a side note, Lincoln could not remember the last time one of his ex-sisters was ever in a position like that, or ever held to own up for some mistake that they made, leading him to believe that his ex-parents preferred their daughters over him. But that's getting off subject. The subject here is that Lincoln screwed up from time to time and that he was shunned for those screwups, although he did eventually return to the good graces of others, especially after he did something to fix whatever mistake he had made. Lincoln was good at fixing mistakes he made.

And he's got a mistake that needs fixing.

* * *

Damion Brown and Rallo White were respectively the Caucasian and African American men that Lincoln had given directions to in order to get to the Hispanic Heritage Month festival. Once they were there, they called in a few others that they knew (at least twenty) so they could gather at the festival and riot, showing their extreme displeasure with how the city was being run. They and others of their respective racial groups in the city blamed the Hispanic population for all of the city's troubles.

It didn't help that a lot of the people in the city that were in positions of power were all Hispanic, along with most of the local police force and a good number of people who worked in the courts. There were a few others among those groups who were of different racial groups, such as the city's mayor and a few aids who worked at City Hall. But examples like that were very few and far between.

Damion and Rallo, along with two friends of theirs named Marcus Skinner and Tristian Hunter, had even gone so far as to kill some of the people at the festival. Two of the other rioters had also killed, but they were both apprehended by police and would face some severe time in prison for their role in the attack on the festival. At least Damion, Rallo, Marcus and Tristian were able to get away before they were caught, although they had to lay low for a while in order to not get picked up by police. All four men would have to make themselves scarce, and fast.

"About time someone gave the fucking Mexicans in this city the middle finger that they all had coming," Rallo said as he and Damion hid out in a building they were using as a home of sorts, "It was getting annoying how they acted like they own the place. Maybe now they'll think twice before screwing everyone else over."

"Although I agree with you how they had it coming," Damion began in a tone of mild caution, "It doesn't change the fact that we have to skip town and hide until everything blows over."

"You, me, Marcus, Tristian, Jake and Kevin killed Mexicans," Rallo began to point out in something of a dry tone, "And now we're being pursued by the police, which are _also_ Mexican." With a gentle head shake to convey some manner of vindication, Rallo continued, "The damn cops did nothing when those violent little fuckers were beating up old ladies and killing innocent kids, but harm one hair on the head of one of their kind, and suddenly they throw everything to the side to hunt you down."

With a sigh, Damion replied, "You got me there, Rallo. So, now what?"

"Well first," Rallo began, "We hide out here overnight, then we get up real early, grab whatever shit we're going to need, then we'll-" Rallo never got to finish that sentence because he was cut off by the sound of a bullet going through a silencer, and instantly afterwards, he slumped over, blood trailing out of a hole in the back of his skull. Seeing his friend slump over dead alarmed Damion, who instantly got up and practically jumped back a bit out of alarm.

"What the fuck?!" Damion exclaimed, "Who the-" Similar to the late Rallo, Damion was cut off midsentence when the sound of a bullet going through a silencer sounded off. Only in Damion's case, the bullet went into his head through the side. Also, as he was standing up at the time of his death, Damion's body fell over onto the floor with a thud. Once both men in the room were dead, Lincoln, once again in the guise of Broken Mirror, stepped out of the shadows.

Using the skills that he learned during his previous campaign, the boy without a family was able to track down these two men to where they were hiding out. In a stroke of luck on his part, when he entered the building by climbing in through the window of one of the rooms, the room he ended up in had a few handguns, one of which was equipped with a silencer. Lincoln collected what he figured he'd be needing for future battles before sneaking his way throughout the building so that he could locate his targets.

Lincoln already checked the rest of the place; he and the two dead men were the only ones here. These men, along with four others, had killed innocent people, and while two of those men were arrested and now in the law's hands, four of the men got away. Lincoln had not only just killed two of those men, but this…job…was something of a personal nature to the white-haired boy. Still, Lincoln had to be professional about what he was doing. He could not afford to let his emotions get the best of him. The game he was pursuing now was far more dangerous than what he went after the last time.

His business done, Lincoln took out a mini spiral bound notepad and flipped it open. There were four names written on the first page, the names of the four men who killed at the festival but were not arrested by police. The boy without a family crossed off Damion's name and Rallo's name before putting the mini notepad away. Lincoln took care of one last issue of business at the building before he took his leave.

He left his calling card.

END, BROKEN MIRROR: NEW WAR CHAPTER TWO

Author's Notes:

In order for the attack/riot on the festival in this chapter to happen, two things are needed. The first thing is for Lincoln to have run away from home; the NSL-related mistreatment he suffered took care of that. The _second_ thing that is needed is for Lincoln to _not_ collapse in front of Carlota in chapter six of 'Broken Mirror', which would allow for Lincoln's life in the city to continue. If even one of these things are not in place, then the two men who got directions from Lincoln would have gotten lost, which would ultimately lead to the attack/riot at the festival not taking place at all (those two men were supposed to call others in).

Anywho, the next chapter will continue Lincoln's personal quest to find the other men who escaped justice. It will also see Lincoln, in the guise of Broken Mirror, rescue someone who he's familiar with.

And before anyone says anything, let me say this; the VYG members were all in Lincoln's general age group. The violent rioters, as well as a few others that Lincoln will be running into later down the line, are all _adults_. Lincoln can't do the same to the adults as he did to the VYG members. He has to use different tactics, as well as use different gear. Otherwise, Lincoln would be overpowered by the first person he went after.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Broken Mirror: New War

Chapter three: Violent Savior

It was the middle of the night in the city. Marcus Skinner was hiding out at a run-down garage somewhere in the city. He, along with his friends Damion Brown, Rallo White, Tristian Hunter, Jake Stone and Kevin Williamson, had all taken part in a riot at a Hispanic Heritage Month festival that was held way earlier in the day. The six men were among many who rioted at the festival, with the end result being over twenty-seven injuries and nine fatalities.

Marcus and his five friends were responsible for all of the fatalities.

Granted, it sucked that Jake and Kevin were both caught by police and arrested, but Marcus and the others were able to get away, at least. Once the guys got out of the city, they'd wait until they figure it would be safe to come back. Marcus personally wasn't sure how long that would take, but if he and a large portion of the city's population could put up with being screwed over by those damn fucking Mexicans who've been screwing the rest of the city over for who knows how long it's been going on, then he and a few guys could easily wait until things blew over.

Stretching out on a sofa in the office of the abandoned garage, Marcus relaxed a little. There was no way the police in this city would find him here before he decided to make himself scarce. He figured that he had enough time to rest, collect his thoughts, and once he was ready, take his leave to wherever his life would-

Marcus's body jerked a bit when the bullet from a handgun equipped with a silencer penetrated his head, going into his brain. The violent rioter was dead before he even had any feeling that he wasn't alone in the abandoned garage. After the late Marcus's arm fell limply over, dangling off the edge of the sofa's cushions, a short kid entered the room.

The kid wore a baggy jacket with a somewhat large hood that kept the kid's head perfectly covered in shadow. The kid also wore a black bandana over the lower half of their face; that, plus how baggy the jacket was, made it impossible to determine the kid's gender. The kid also wore a somewhat baggy pair of jeans, sneakers, and a pair of light brown leather gloves.

This kid was actually Lincoln, the boy without a family, once again in the guise of Broken Mirror. Heading over to the man that he killed, Lincoln took a good look at the dead man's face. The white-haired boy nodded in the affirmative, knowing that he killed the man that he was looking for. Pulling out a mini spiral bound notebook, Lincoln flipped it open to the first page. There were four names written on the page, all of them being the names of the four men who killed at the Hispanic Heritage Month festival but were not arrested; there were two other men who killed at that festival, but they were both apprehended by police, so Lincoln wasn't going to even bother with them. The law would take care of those two.

…Just as Lincoln had taken care of Marcus Skinner just now, as the boy without a family crossed Marcus's name off the list. Damion Brown and Rallo White's respective names were crossed out, as Lincoln went after them first due to something of a personal issue. And Tristian Hunter's name was also crossed out; Lincoln took Tristian out between taking out Damion and Rallo, and taking out Marcus just now.

Taking out a copy of his calling card, Lincoln laid it on top of the deceased Marcus Skinner before turning around and taking his leave from the abandoned garage. Lincoln's work here was done, and he saw no reason to stick around and risk being seen. If there was one thing that he learned ever since running away from home and starting a new life in this city, it was how to not be careless.

Lincoln didn't wipe out the city's violent youth gang problem by being careless.

* * *

The following morning, Lincoln was having breakfast at the local Burpin' Burger, although his breakfast consisted of a large cup of sports drink from the drink dispensary and a pack of toaster treat that he brought in with him. Lincoln was here mainly because he relied on the TV that was mounted on one of the walls in the Burpin' Burger for news.

As he had his breakfast, Lincoln heard one of the other patrons in the restaurant ask one of the employees to turn up the TV, as there was something on the news about the four at-large men who killed at the Hispanic Heritage Month festival. "This just in," the news anchor said, "We've just received word that Damion Brown and Rallo White, two men who were at-large after taking part in the violence yesterday at the festival riots, were just found dead. The cause of death for both men has been confirmed to be fatal headshots."

"Hey, they were two of the men from the news yesterday that had killed at the festival," one of the patrons in the Burpin' burger said.

"Dude, zip it," said the patron who asked that the volume be turned up, "We're trying to listen here!" Everyone returned their attention to the news as it continued with the breaking news story.

"The local police say that during investigation of the crime scene, the calling card of local infamous vigilante Broken Mirror was discovered, leading many to speculate that it was Broken Mirror who killed Damion Brown and Rallo White. We will bring you more on this story as it develops." After the news went onto the news, the various patrons in the Burpin' Burger began to talk amongst themselves.

"So, what?" one of the patrons, a rather well-fed middle-aged Caucasian woman, began, "Killing innocent kids wasn't enough for that vicious murderer? He's going after grown men, too?"

"First off," began another patron, a slim young adult Hispanic girl, "Every last one of those little bastards were _far_ from innocent. Second off, the two men that were just found killed were some of the men who killed during the riot at the festival yesterday. The ones who were _really_ innocent are the victims of those violent kids, of those men who killed at the festival. Why are there still people like you in this city who takes to defending the people who had what Broken Mirror did to them coming?"

"How dare you speak to me like that!" the Caucasian woman snapped at the Hispanic girl, "I won't stand for part of the help talking to me like that!"

"Excuse me, fatass?!" the Hispanic girl snapped back, clearly pissed off by what the Caucasian woman just said, "Did you just refer to me as part of the help? What, is me not being dressed in a maid outfit offending you? Is me not saying 'me no speak-e English' not sitting right with you?" When the well-fed middle-aged Caucasian woman and the slim young adult Hispanic girl began to get into an argument, Lincoln decided to take it as his sign to leave.

Having seen dumber girls getting into dumber fights over dumber reasons, the boy without a family learned the value of making himself scarce when things heated up. Collecting his bag and his fountain drink, Lincoln got up off of the seat that he was sitting in, went to the door, and left before the first call in the Burpin' Burger to the police was made.

* * *

Lincoln got an odd job taking care of some chores for a kind elderly Hispanic man that day. After all of the chores were done, Lincoln was paid, and even stuck around a bit because the elderly Hispanic man offered him lunch as well. As Lincoln and his latest employer ate, the news, which was playing on the TV, had yet another breaking story.

"This just in," the news reporter said as he reported live from outside of an abandoned garage somewhere in the city, "The body of Marcus Skinner has just been discovered here at the old city garage a few minutes ago. Marcus Skinner was one of four men who killed during the Hispanic Heritage Month festival yesterday but got away before police could arrest him. Furthermore, police on the scene have said that the calling card of Broken Mirror was discovered alongside Marcus Skinner's remains, just as what happened when the bodies of Damion Brown and Rallo White were discovered earlier this morning, and what happened when the body of Tristian Hunter was discovered an hour and a half ago."

The news then shifted to an interview with a middle-aged Caucasian man who, judging by his attire, was both well-off in terms of financial stability and was something of a smug, self-important person. "The police have _got_ to do something about this violent killer that's loose in the city!" the middle-aged man said with a hint of annoyance in his tone, "There is no reason for that vigilante to have done what he did! Both to the men and those innocent kids!

The news shifted again to an interview with an elderly Hispanic man who Lincoln saw was Hector Casagrande. "That Broken Mirror fellow…" Hector began as he sounded like he was trying to keep from crying, "…He's actually looking out for the innocent people in this city. What the people who suffered during the attack on the festival yesterday went through is something that no one ever has coming. This city's Hispanic community doesn't deserve the discrimination and racism that it's receiving from most everyone else, and Broken Mirror seems to agree with that."

The news then shifted back to the news reporter, who was still reporting live from outside of the abandoned garage. "The city is still split on the issue that is Broken Mirror," the news reporter said, "And with the vigilante's apparent efforts to rid the city of its troubles now moving on to avenge the deaths of those who lost their lives during the attack on the Hispanic Heritage Month festival yesterday, it seems that those who would commit hate crimes better think twice before carrying out their intentions. On a note related to the attack yesterday, a vigil for the victims of the attack on the festival will be held later this afternoon. And now, onto the weather." Right as the news shifted back to the news studio so the weatherman could go on about the weather, the kind elderly Hispanic man lowered the volume on the news.

Sighing in a resigned tone, the kind elderly Hispanic man said, "I'm sorry, but I'm not really in much of a mood to hear anything about the attack on the festival yesterday by that mob of racist rioters."

"I'm…going to have to agree with you on that one, sir," Lincoln replied, concern clear in his tone, "The idea that something like that could happen really kind of frightens me."

"Yeah, it is kind of a sobering thought," the kind elderly Hispanic man remarked, agreeing with what the boy without a family said, "But that's only part of my reason." With another sigh that sounded in a resigned tone, the kind elderly Hispanic man explained, "My brother-in-law was one of the people killed in the attack on the festival yesterday."

"Your…your brother-in-law was killed?" Lincoln asked, sounding a mix of sympathetic and upset upon hearing the news.

"Yeah, he was," the kind elderly Hispanic man replied. With a gentle shake of his head, the kind elderly Hispanic man continued, "I'm not sure if he was killed by one of the two men arrested by the police, or if he was killed by one of the four men that was killed by the vigilante. But what I do know is that my brother-in-law will get justice, if he hadn't already." Giving Lincoln a mildly curious look, the kind elderly Hispanic man asked, "Young man, what's your opinion on that Broken Mirror fellow?"

"That whoever they may be," Lincoln began to reply, "Broken Mirror is a very divisive topic in this city. I'm not even sure what to think of the subject myself." The kind elderly man nodded in agreement with Lincoln's response; granted, the kind elderly Hispanic man was one of those in the city who actually saw Broken Mirror as a _good_ thing, but he still respected the decision on the matter that the boy without a family has.

The kind elderly Hispanic man wished that he could meet Broken Mirror so he could thank him (or her; no one knows what gender Broken Mirror is) for avenging his brother-in-law.

* * *

A few weeks went by without much incident. Granted, there was still _some_ incidents, like the time where an elderly Hispanic woman was mugged by a Caucasian mugger who targeted her partly because of her ethnicity, and the time where another citizen of Hispanic heritage was targeted by a group of three people, two Caucasians and an African American, and beaten to death by the group.

It was very late, and Lincoln, in the guise of Broken Mirror, had just finished ending the last of the three people from the aforementioned group that beat the innocent citizen to death. The boy without a family left a copy of his calling card on the early twenties Caucasian woman (the first female adult that Lincoln had taken the life of) before standing back to take his leave.

Lincoln had taken care of all three people from the incident where an innocent person was beaten to death, just as he had taken care of the mugger who went after the elderly Hispanic woman. With each act of vengeance that the boy without a family carried out, the reputation of Broken Mirror grew; many people in the city still see the vigilante as a violent criminal no different than those who meet their end by him or her, but a more or less equal percentage of the city's population see Broken Mirror as someone who sets fear into the hearts of those who would otherwise carry out acts of violence against those who were completely innocent.

Broken Mirror was a divisive topic in the city, indeed.

After he stood up from leaving his calling card on the woman he just killed, Lincoln looked around. There was no way that he could have been seen, but the white-haired boy still did not like the idea of sticking around for too long. His dark work having been finished here, Lincoln decided that it was best to-

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" a panicked female voice cried out from over some ways, catching the attention of the boy without a family. Looking over to the other side of the street from the entrance of the alleyway he was in, Lincoln figured that the cry came from the alleyway entrance located on the other side of the street.

He checked the gun that he lifted from the building where he killed Damion Brown and Rallo White, saw that it still had a fair amount of ammo. After he made sure that he was ready for another confrontation, the white-haired boy decided to go see what was going on in the alleyway on the other side of the street.

…

"Get back here, you fucking wetback!" the mid thirties Caucasian man snarled angrily as he chased Carlota Casagrande through an alleyway somewhere in the city. The seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl thought that her outing would have been a simple run to the grocery store to pick up an ingredient that her Grandma Rosa forgot for tonight's dinner. But now, Carlota was running from an angry man who was clearly one of the many people in the city upset with how the city was being run and were using race as an excuse to vent their frustrations.

Carlota was scared out of her mind as she made turn after turn in the alleyway, although the man who was chasing her wasn't having too much trouble in keeping up with her. After Carlota made yet another turn in her more or less in vain efforts to shake her pursuer, she heard a shot being fired, a shot that sounded like it came from a gun equipped with a silencer. Carlota then heard the man who was chasing her cry out in an even mix of pain and anger.

Stopping short, Carlota turned around and, to her shock, saw the man who was pursuing her laying on the ground of the alleyway they were in; prolific bleeding from the back of the man's left shin indicated that he was shot in the leg from behind. As Carlota watched the man struggle in vain to try and get back up, she noticed someone else enter the scene. It was a kid, to Carlota's surprise; the kid was wearing a baggy jacket with a somewhat large hood that was currently worn up, a black bandana over the lower half of their face, a somewhat baggy pair of jeans, a pair of sneakers, and a pair of light brown leather gloves. Due to the kid's outfit, Carlota had no way of telling if it was a boy or a girl. She couldn't even tell what ethnicity the kid had.

As the man who had chased her tried to get up, the kid walked up to where the man laid on the ground, pulled out a handgun equipped with a silencer, aimed it at the back of his head, and pulled the trigger, killing him. The kid then pulled something out from a side-pocket on their jacket, laid it on the body of the man he or she just killed, then turned around and left quickly.

After the kid had left, Carlota walked forward slowly and somewhat timidly towards the body of the man who was chasing her. He clearly wanted to do Carlota harm; he might have gone so far as to actually _kill_ her. After all, he had a bowie knife in a holster on his right side, and the man also said that he'd do to Carlota what 'her people', as he had put it, was currently doing to the rest of the city.

…But that wasn't going to happen now. The man who was threating to do Carlota harm as he chased her was killed by some masked kid who had a gun. Carlota had no idea who it was that saved her life, but as she slowly inched closer to the body of the man who might have taken her life, Carlota wished that the kid had stuck around long enough for her to-

All of Carlota's thought processes stopped instantly in their tracks as Carlota's eyes fell upon what the kid had laid on the man after they had killed him. The seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl realized what had just happened, as well as who it was that saved her when she saw the index card that had a capital letter 'B' in the upper left corner, a capital letter 'M' in the lower right, and a drawing in the middle of a hand mirror with the mirror part shattered.

The calling card of Broken Mirror. Carlota was just saved by the vigilante who went to war against the violent youth gang, who has long since ceased to do anything for some odd reason, and was now apparently going to war against anyone in the city who would allow their racism to make them act out in the logical extreme. The seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl was rescued from certain danger by Broken Mirror. However, in the process of being saved from the man who wanted to do her harm, Carlota learned something about Broken Mirror that a lot of people in the city would love to know about the vigilante.

Broken Mirror is a kid.

END, BROKEN MIROR: NEW WAR CHAPTER THREE

Author's notes:

Carlota didn't see/notice anything about Broken Mirror that would give her more of a hint as to the identity of the vigilante (Carlota has no idea that it's Lincoln, and she won't be putting two and two together). However, the only thing that she _did_ learn, the fact that Broken Mirror is apparently a kid, would be info that some people in the city might go so far as to pay for. The next chapter will see what Carlota decides to do with this information.

By the way, in case you were wondering, Carlota would have gotten away from the guy who was chasing her anyway. Lincoln's continued presence in the city ultimately makes no difference.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Broken Mirror: New War

Chapter four: Familial Feelings

Lincoln, the boy without a family, was getting breakfast at the local Burpin' Burger that was in the city that he ran away to after he was decried as bad luck by his now ex-family. It was a breakfast consisting of a large fountain drink and two servings of the French Toast sticks (one serving barely qualified as a snack; two came close to being a somewhat filling meal) that were served at the burger chain that Lincoln at first didn't know existed outside of his old hometown of Royal Woods. As Lincoln ate, he heard one of the other patrons in the restaurant ask tat the volume on the wall-mounted TV be turned up.

"Seriously, man," the patron said to the cashier that was currently working the counter, "There's a girl being interviewed on the news and she's saying that she was saved by Broken Mirror when she was heading home last night!"

Upon hearing that, Lincoln stopped suddenly, the French Toast stick he held halfway between his tray and his mouth. The boy without a family did remember that during the previous night, after he had taken out one of the three people who beat an innocent person of Hispanic heritage to death, he heard a girl scream in fright.

Upon investigating the matter, Lincoln saw that some adult guy was chasing Carlota Casagrande, clearly with the intent to do her severe harm, if not outright kill her. Lincoln, who was still in the guise of Broken Mirror, the identity he has taken to using when carrying out his 'work', shot the man chasing Carlota in the leg from behind, then shot him in the back of the head. Lincoln left a copy of his calling card before taking his leave from the scene.

Lincoln turned his attention to the news on the wall-mounted TV, and saw that Carlota was on the news, being interviewed. "…Yeah, I was being chased by a man who was shouting racial slurs at me," Carlota said as she seemed like she was trying to retain her composure, "I thought that he was going to kill me. While I was being chased by that man, I heard a gunshot fire off, followed by the man who was chasing me cry out. I…" Carlota stopped short, took a steadying breath, then continued, "…I continued to run, afraid to stop because of the man who was chasing me. I turned a corner in the alleyway, and after passing a dumpster, I heard another gunshot fire off. I hid for a few minutes, then when I dared to go back to see what happened, I…I saw that the man who was chasing me was dead. I also saw Broken Mirror's calling card on the man's body, so I knew what had happened. I was saved by Broken Mirror."

The news then shifted back to a news anchor in the local news studio, who said, "With this latest act of vigilantism, people all over the city are more than ever wanting to know the identity of Broken Mirror, whose identity still remains a total mystery. And now onto the weather."

As the news shifted to the weather, Lincoln breathed a sigh of relief; he did save Carlota the previous night, and he also had a feeling that she saw him in the act. He did kill a clearly dangerous man who was chasing her, after all. However, Carlota, if either because she didn't get enough of a look or she did but for some reason decided to withhold certain info, claimed that she didn't see who Broken Mirror was. The fact that Carlota didn't say anything that would give a clue as to who Broken Mirror was is a good thing; otherwise, things would have gotten a lot more difficult for the boy without a family.

Lincoln wanted to talk to Carlota the next time he saw her.

* * *

After he was done with breakfast, Lincoln decided that he'd head over to the apartment building where the Casagrandes lived, given his desire to talk to Carlota about her experiences from the previous night. As it just so happened, when Lincoln reached the bodega store that was part of the apartment building, Carlota came walking out of the bodega's door. "Oh!" Carlota said as she spotted Lincoln, "You're that kid from before! What brings you by?"

"You do, actually," Lincoln replied, drawing a curious look out of the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl.

"You came to see me?" Carlota asked, a curious look on her face. Carlota's face then acquired something of a mischievous and flirtatious look as she held a hand to her head and her other hand on her hip. "Let me guess," Carlota remarked in something of a knowing tone, "You want to admit that you have a little crush on me."

"What? No," Lincoln replied, "I came by because I saw that you were interviewed on the news earlier this morning." Upon hearing Lincoln's reason, Carlota looked a bit flustered, but regained her composure within short order.

"Oh," Carlota remarked in something of a mildly embarrassed tone, "I see. Yeah, I was on the news because some guy was chasing me through the alleyways last night, but before he was able to get to me, he was shot and killed." With a bit of an unsure look on her face, Carlota went on, "When I came out of hiding to see what had happened, I saw that Broken Mirror's calling card was on the body of the man who chased me."

"Yeah, I heard that from the news," Lincoln remarked, "And that's why I wanted to talk to you." Sounding mildly worried in a way that expressed concern, Lincoln continued, "Are you okay? I mean, you were being chased by some man who wanted to do you harm, and you almost ran into a vigilante who's been known to kill people." With concern seeping into his expression, the boy without a family added, "I was worried about you."

"Aww," Carlota replied. Reaching forward to ruffle the top of Lincoln's head, Carlota continued as she ruffled Lincoln's hair a little, "Aren't you sweet. I bet any girl in your age group would totally jump at the chance to snag a kindhearted guy such as yourself." Removing her hand from the top of Lincoln's head, Carlota said, "Anywho, I was just on my way to help a friend of my Grandma Rosa's with something. I bet that Grandma Rosa's friend would be more than happy to have you help out as well. Wanna come?"

With a small but kind smile, Lincoln said, "Sure, that sounds nice."

* * *

Carlota eventually led Lincoln to an apartment building that resembled the building that a certain football-shaped headed youth lives in. Carlota and Lincoln walked up the front steps of the building, entered the front door and walked through a hallway that had apartment doors along its length on both sides. "Ah, here we are," Carlota said as she stopped outside of one of the doors, prompting Lincoln to stop as well.

The seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl knocked on the door a few times, and after a few seconds, the door was answered by a senior-aged woman. The older woman had long blonde hair that was starting to show signs of graying with age. She wore a simple long-sleeved green dress under a dark reddish garment that was a tank top until you reached the waist, at which point there were flaps of cloth that reached about halfway down the shins, with one covering the front of the woman's outfit and the other covering the back. There were also arm warmers, same color as the garment over the dress, that covered the woman's biceps. Lastly, there was a brown leather belt worn around the waist, with excess length trailing down the woman's front, ending about an inch past the end of the red garment.

"Ah, Rosa's granddaughter," the older woman greeted in a friendly tone, "About time you got here!" The woman had a slight hint of accent that brought to mind proud and mighty warriors from a northern land of snow and cold. As she greeted Carlota, the older woman's gaze fell upon Lincoln. "…And who is this you brought with you?" the older woman asked as she returned her attention to Carlota.

"Oh, this is that boy I told you about," Carlota said, "Remember? The one who helped my friends and I with our part in the school fundraiser from a while ago?"

"Oh, so this little one is the child from that day," the older woman replied to Carlota. Turning her gaze to Lincoln, the older woman continued, "You know, you kind of remind me of my grandniece Astrid, young man. She and you are about the same height, and you both have white hair." With a chuckle, the older woman added, "Why, you could probably pass for Astrid if you let your hair grow to reach halfway down your shoulder blades!"

"Umm, okay," Lincoln replied, mildly unsure of how to respond. Turning to face Carlota, Lincoln said, "Your grandmother's friend seems pretty nice, I guess."

"Oh, she's a great person," Carlota remarked to the boy without a family. Turning her attention to the older woman, Carlota asked, "So ma'am, when should we get started?"

"Oh, now would be the perfect time," the older woman remarked as she gestured for Carlota and Lincoln to enter her apartment.

* * *

Later on, as Lincoln and Carlota helped with moving about some furniture, the older woman came in carrying what looked to be fairly large mugs made of wood. There were metal bands along the edges of the mugs, both at the top and on the bottom. "The two of you ought to take a break," the older woman remarked in a kind tone, "I bet all of the furniture moving you did for me has given both of you a warrior's thirst!"

"Yeah, I could use something to drink, Mrs. Ace," Carlota replied as she and Lincoln sat down a coffee table and walked over to the older woman, apparently called Mrs. Ace.

"Oh, so that's your name," Lincoln said to Mrs. Ace as he and Carlota both accepted mugs from the older woman.

With something of a mildly amused grin, Mrs. Ace replied as she jerked a thumb at herself, "Aye. The name's Sejuani Ace."

"Mrs. Ace here moved with her family from Sweden to the United States," Carlota said to the boy without a family, "I've heard some amazing things from Mrs. Ace about her life back in the country where she was born."

"Wow, I never met anyone born outside of North America before," Lincoln remarked, sounding mildly amazed. Turning to face Sejuani, Lincoln said, "You were born in Sweden, right? Isn't that one of the Nordic countries?"

"It is, little one," Sejuani replied in the affirmative, "Never will you find a land that is richer in lore, culture and history." Lincoln nodded in agreement with what Sejuani was saying; Lincoln didn't have an actually outright opinion about what the older woman was saying, but he could see why Sejuani would make the claim that she made. And he didn't want to seem rude to the nice old lady who invited him and Carlota into her home.

…

After Lincoln and Carlota were done doing the work Sejuani invited them over for, she entertained the young guests for a little while, telling them tales of her homeland, as well as a few stories from Norse mythology. "…And that's how Tyr lost his hand," Sejuani said as she finished a story, "Although given that the great wolf Fenrir was bound at last, one could say it was well worth it."

"That's…an interesting story, Mrs. Ace," Carlota remarked as she and Lincoln both drank from their respective mugs.

"If'n ya want to hear an interesting story," Sejuani replied, "Then you should have heard some of the stories that my late nephew-in-law said to his and my niece Ashe's children." With a look of mild concentration on her face, Sejuani continued, "I believe that my oldest grandnephew remembers at least a few of those stories." After she said that, Sejuani cast a casual glance at the mugs that Carlota and Lincoln were drinking from. With a mildly amused look on her face, Sejuani asked, "So, how did you kids enjoy the mead I served you?"

"Wait, what?" Lincoln replied, not believing what the older woman was saying.

"Mrs. Ace, you didn't serve us mead," Carlota remarked in a mildly firm tone, sounding of unamusement towards the older woman's obvious attempt to playfully mess with the younger people.

Laughing in a good-natured tone that showed that she knew she was caught, Sejuani replied, "I kid, I kid. I didn't really serve alcohol to the two of you. I just wanted to mess around with you two a little bit."

"You know, I actually sort of believed you when you said that you served us mead." Lincoln remarked, glad that the older woman was actually just kidding.

"I am not irresponsible enough to serve mead to those who are not yet of age," Sejuani replied, "But if you're interested when you turn twenty-one, I'll be glad to pour you a drinking horn's worth of a true warrior's drink." The older woman then gave off a good-natured laugh, likewise prompting Lincoln and Carlota to laugh as well.

* * *

After their work at Sejuani's apartment was done, Lincoln and Carlota took their leave. "Your grandmother's friend seems like a really nice lady," Lincoln remarked to the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl, "Although I kind of didn't appreciate how she made me think I drank alcohol. I mean, I'm only eleven, for crying out loud! I'm at least a decade away from drinking!"

"Mrs. Ace does tend to joke around a bit, yes," Carlota remarked, "Although my Grandma Rosa tells me that when she and Mrs. Ace were young adults, Mrs. Ace was far more serious. I even remember this one story my Grandma Rosa told me of how Mrs. Ace lived up to the Viking history of her homeland when two morons tried to start trouble with them." Seeing the mildly confused look on Lincoln's face, Carlota said, "Basically, Mrs. Ace has mellowed out quite a bit from when she was younger. Her tendency today to joke around is a sign of that."

"Well so long as she's happy, I suppose," Lincoln replied. The two of them stayed silent for a bit until the apartment building/bodega store came into view. "Umm, can I ask you something?" Lincoln asked, getting Carlota to look down to him.

"What is it?" Carlota said.

"Can you try to stay safe?" Lincoln asked, "I mean, you were almost attacked by someone last night, and there's no guarantee that you'll be saved by some vigilante again." With a troubled-sounding sigh, Lincoln continued, "I'd hate for something bad to hap-" Lincoln was cut off when Carlota turned slightly so that she was facing Lincoln more directly, got down on one knee so that she'd be level with him, then threw her arms around him gently to drag the boy without a family into a hug.

"You're too sweet," Carlota said as tears gently fell down the sides of her face, "You know that, right?" Lincoln didn't know right away that Carlota was crying, but he learned that when he felt her tears stain his shirt. Knowing that he must have touched her heart with his show of concern (although he wasn't quite sure _how_ that was the result), Lincoln gently patted Carlota's back.

"You're…you're a sweet person, too," Lincoln said, "Makes me wish I had an older sister like you."

"What about the older sister whose birthday happened a while ago?" Carlota asked as she continued to hug the boy without a family, "The one I got that jersey for?" Lincoln suddenly remembered what Carlota was talking about; back when he first met her, Lincoln told Carlota that he was looking for a way to earn some money.

Long story short, Carlota ended up coming to the conclusion that Lincoln was trying to earn money because he had a sibling whose birthday was coming up, so she got him a small job helping her and her friends set up their stand at a school fundraiser. Carlota even managed to find a sports jersey that Lincoln could give to his sister as a gift, since Lincoln had told Carlota that his sister was interested in sports. Lincoln having a sister that's interested in sports is, as far as the white-haired boy care, a complete and total lie.

"…Yeah, my sister that you're talking about is kind of rough with me," Lincoln explained in something of a deadpan, allowing a modicum of truth to seep into his tale. Gently throwing his arms around Carlota so he could hug her back, Lincoln continued, "You're a lot gentler, though. Not to mention kind, given how much consideration you've shown to me, even though I'm more or less a stranger."

"You're…" Carlota began to reply, although she had to stop short a bit to take a breath to steady herself, "…You're far from a stranger, as far as I'm concerned. You can swing by anytime. I bet my family would love to have you over."

Lincoln gave some serious thought to Carlota's offer. The white-haired boy already met and got on good terms with Carlota's grandfather Hector. Lincoln met and got along with Carlota's mother Frida and brother Carlos Jr. There's also Carlota's grandmother Rosa, and Lincoln remembered Carlos Sr. saying something about having two other sons. Lincoln had not met Rosa or Carlota's other two brothers, but he bet he'd get along with them too.

Lincoln was concerned about Carlos Sr., as he saw the kindhearted professor was badly hurt at the attack/riot at the festival from a while ago. But Lincoln also saw, during his brief time there after arriving upon hearing what had happened, that the older Carlos was still alive. The boy without a family sincerely hoped that Carlos Sr. made a complete recovery. Lincoln would hate for anything serious to have happened to Carlos Sr., or anyone else in the Casagrande family.

A family that Lincoln would have liked to have been a part of.

"…Yeah," Lincoln remarked as he and Carlota broke away from the hug, "I bet that I'd enjoy coming over for a bit, too." The boy without a family and the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl went their separate ways, Carlota to return home, and Lincoln to the abandoned building that he's taken to living in.

* * *

Lincoln was up early the following morning. He checked all of his gear that he uses when working as Broken Mirror, he made sure all of his stuff was in one place, and after making sure no one would find his stuff if they wandered into the abandoned building by chance, Lincoln took his leave for the day, to go about finding another odd job to do.

Before actually looking for another odd job, Lincoln would first have breakfast at the Local Burpin' Burger, given that he relies on the wall-mounted TV there as a source of news. Still wanting to avoid too much fast food, Lincoln would buy some fruit from a convenience store before coming to the Burpin' Burger for the morning. Fruit would make for a healthy enough morning meal.

After buying two apples and a banana from the convenience store, Lincoln made his way to the Burpin' Burger, so that he could begin his day.

END, BROKEN MIRROR: NEW WAR CHAPTER FOUR

Author's notes:

…What? After Broken Mirror saved her from some jerk who clearly wanted to do her extreme physical harm, Carlota wouldn't tell anyone that she learned that Broken Mirror is a kid. That would not be showing any gratitude for being saved. Carlota may know that Broken Mirror is really just a kid, but that doesn't necessarily mean she's going to want to tell anyone about that little factoid. Anywho, the next chapter will see a lot of events that occurred in 'Restored Image' be skimmed over to some degree, as well as maybe some hint as to events that occur in other stories that I have planned.

EDIT: When I said that 'Lincoln's presence in the city ultimately makes no difference', I meant that in regard to Carlota being chased by that guy through the alleyways. Carlota ends up getting away from that guy regardless of what happens. Lincoln's continued presence in the city makes differences in...pretty much everything else. Sorry if there was any confusion.


	5. Chapter 5

Pre-chapter author's note: I recently got a guest comment on my Rosario Vampire story (yes, I have a Rosario Vampire story) asking me not to forget 'Restored Image' and this story. If the person who left that comment sees this, I need to point out two things. One, 'Restored Image' ended, although I did create a new version of the last chapter, which is currently up right now. Two, this story is far from over, as the fact that this chaper was put up can obviously indicate. Without further ado, here's chapter five.

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Broken Mirror: New War

Chapter five: What happens at home

He stood up from his latest kill, an African American man who robbed a small electronic device store owned by an elderly Hispanic couple. Not only did he rob it, but the man also trashed the place a bit and, when the elderly Hispanic man tried to call for police, the African American man forced his way over, dragged the elderly man away from the phone, and slammed his head into either a wall or a counter in the store.

Lincoln, the boy without a family, once again in the guise of Broken Mirror, couldn't remember the exact details of that story. What he did remember is that the elderly Hispanic man died due to the trauma he suffered. And now, with the elderly man's killer dead at Lincoln's feet on the ground in the alleyway one night in the city that he ran away to, the innocent elderly man who owned that electronic device store was avenged.

Taking out a copy of his calling card, Lincoln laid it on the body of the man that he killed; the boy without a family sniped the man from the shadows as the man was tossing something out in a dumpster in the alleyway. The white-haired boy's deed of the night was done, and with nothing else to keep him there, Lincoln made himself scarce. Taking care not to be seen, Lincoln quietly but quickly made his way back to the abandoned building that he's taken to living in.

It was little better than living in a large cardboard box in an alleyway somewhere in the city. But compared to the life that Lincoln left behind in Royal Woods, his old hometown, the abandoned building he lived in now might as well be the Taj Mahal. Making his way to the room in the building that's been renovated into something of a bedroom, Lincoln walked over to the bed and, too tired to even bother changing out of his Broken Mirror outfit, fell over onto the bed and fell asleep.

* * *

The following afternoon, Lincoln was walking back from another odd job he did. Surprisingly, this was a pet sitting job, where the boy without a family watched an elderly Caucasian woman's dog while she was managing a small clothes store. The dog, an intimidating-looking Rottweiler, was despite all appearances an incredibly friendly dog that was one of the biggest softies of the canine world that Lincoln ever met. The dog, according to his owner, loved to be with people, and part of the reason why Lincoln was hired to pet sit him was because the Rottweiler had some issues with being left alone.

After Lincoln got paid, he respectfully took his leave. As he made his way to the abandoned building that he took to living in, Lincoln turned a corner. However, the moment he did, he saw something that instantly made him go back around the corner he just turned. Peeking out from around the corner, Lincoln saw Carlota Casagrande sitting at an outdoor café with two people. Although nothing was odd about that in and of itself, it was _who_ Carlota was sitting with that alarmed the white-haired boy.

Bobby Santiago, Carlota's cousin and the teen who Lincoln sees as something of an older brother figure, and Lori Loud, the oldest of Lincoln's ex-sisters.

The boy without a family couldn't believe it. What were Bobby and Lori of all people doing here in the city? In the case of Bobby, Lincoln could probably understand, given that Carlota is his cousin, with the rest of the Casagrandes being Bobby's relatives. But what about Lori? The oldest Loud sibling doesn't have any such excuse! Lori doesn't have any relatives to speak of living in the city.

No relatives at all.

Given where he was hiding, and given how the three teenagers at the outdoor café were seated, there was no way any of them would see Lincoln. Furthermore, Lincoln was, surprisingly, able to hear what the three teenagers were talking about from where he hid. The boy without a family decided to listen in to see if he can learn anything about what's happening back in Royal Woods. Don't get Lincoln wrong, he doesn't miss his old home in the least, and he certainly held no desire to ever return. His curiosity was itching, and it was an itch that he wanted to scratch.

* * *

"I'm surprised you actually drove all the way from Royal Woods to see us, Bobby," Carlota remarked in a genuinely touched tone as she, Bobby and Lori had their lunch at the outdoor café, "I mean, it is a pretty long drive just to visit us for a bit, although Grandma Rosa was certainly happy to have you visit." With a somewhat resigned sigh, Carlota said in a mildly somber tone, "Given what we've gone through, what we're currently going through, what a lot of the city's Hispanic population is going through right now, we can use all of the support we can get."

"Carlota," Bobby began, "You, Grandma Rosa and the rest of them are my family. There is no way that I'd leave you all out like that."

"Bobby has a point," Lori remarked, "And what's going on here in the city right now is literally one of the lamest things ever. You won't see anything like what's going on here take place over in Royal Woods, let me tell you."

"Yeah, I've heard from Bobby," Carlota said. With a sigh, the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl continued, "That being said, I guess that it's ultimately for the best that Bobby, Aunt Maria and Ronnie Anne didn't move from Royal Woods to come live here with us. I wouldn't want any of them exposed to what's going on here."

"Yeah, the violent acts of racism are not cool at all," Bobby remarked. After taking a sip from his drink, Bobby continued, "My best bud Aggro would totally have our backs on this one. There isn't a whole lot that ticks him off more than the kind of racism that's going on here."

"Aggro?" Carlota repeated in a confused tone.

"Aggro Ace," Lori began to explain, "He's a half-Swedish and half-Japanese guy who goes to Royal Woods High. Bobby and Aggro have been close friends for a very long time, since before Bobby and I started going out." With a resigned expression, Lori continued, "That's why it all the more shameful what happened."

"What…what happened exactly?" Carlota asked, sounding mildly worried about what might have happened.

"I'm…not all that sure since Lori didn't tell me a whole lot," Bobby admitted with a mildly lost look on his face, "I think Ronnie Anne heard something from one of Lori's elementary school-aged sisters about either of Lori's sisters who goes to Royal Woods High with us being admitted to the hospital?" Turning to face Lori, Bobby said, "I'm sorry if I wasn't supposed to know about it, Babe, but Ronnie Anne was going on about what she heard from one of your younger sisters one day after school." Gently laying a hand on Lori's shoulder as a gesture of sympathy and support, Bobby said, "You don't have to tell us if you don't want to, but just so you know I'll be there for you if you need it."

"You can count on me too," Carlota said to her cousin's girlfriend, "Us girls got to stick together, after all."

Sniffling a little bit, Lori said, "Thanks, you two. But yeah, I will tell you what's going on, but it's a bit of a story. I have to go over a few other things first, and it will take me a while to get to the main point."

"Take all the time you need, Babe," Bobby said in a reassuring tone.

With a resigned sigh, Lori said, "Well, here it goes. The first major thing in recent events to happen to someone in my family was my sister Lynn getting her heart broken by that little bastard Francisco."

"Your younger sister's heart got broken?" Carlota repeated, sounding worried and sympathetic at the same time.

"Don't worry," Lori replied, "Lynn soon met a new boy in her grade named Ulfric. His family apparently moved to the United States from Sweden. In fact, shortly after she met Ulfric, Lynn stopped some sort of cheating thing in the football team she belongs to, with Ulfric's help. Thanks to Ulfric, Lynn was literally pulled out of a depressed slump." With a sigh, Lori added, "Lynn still doesn't want to play baseball anytime soon, though."

"I'm…not sure what that has to do with anything, but go on," Carlota remarked.

"Anywho," Lori said, "The next thing that happened was this one night where I was left in charge of my sisters. I usually have to resort to drastic measures to make sure that my sisters all behave themselves. I wanted to try something different to keep a lid on all of them, to not have to virtually become a dictator. Lucy gave me the idea for a family game night, saying something about the spirits telling her that it was what our missing brother would have suggested."

"Your brother is missing?" Carlota asked in a shocked and mildly heartbroken tone, "You have a brother?"

"Yeah, cousin," Bobby answered in a mildly depressed tone, "Lori has a younger brother named Lincoln. He's the chilliest little dude you'd ever meet."

"Do you know why he ran away?" Carlota asked as she returned her attention to Lori, "I'm sorry, but I'm just curious as to any theories you might have."

"I…I'll tell you later," Lori replied in a sad tone, "If I told you here and now, it would take too much time, not to mention make you think I'm a complete and total monster."

"Babe, you are _not_ a monster," Bobby said in a firm but sympathetic tone, "If you _didn_ ' _t_ feel any remorse for your part in what happened, then you'd be a monster. But you do feel remorse for what happened. You regret everything you had a hand in." Leaning to his side so he could plant a kiss on Lori's left cheek (he sat on her left), Bobby continued, "It's why I still love you, despite the role you played in what happened."

"Th…Thanks," Lori replied, a bit at a lost due to the unwavering support her Boo-Boo Bear was showing her. With a sigh, Lori said, "But we've gotten off subject enough here. Back to the story, my sisters and I all decided to have a game night, picking one of the random board games we had on the shelf in the coat closet." Letting out a breath, Lori continued, " _That_ was a big mistake. You see, my aforementioned sister Lynn is rather competitive, due to all of her time playing sports. She's the kind of person who has to come out on top all the time. The fact that Lynn's football team was being forced to miss a few games to get the number of team members back up certainly wasn't helping things, either."

"Why did her team need to get the number of members back up?" Carlota asked.

"I'll tell you about that later, too," Lori said, "In fact, you may want to write down everything that I say I'll tell you about later."

Carlota nodded in understanding before getting a small spiral bound notebook and a pen out of her purse. As Carlota proceeded to write down a few things, Lori continued, "Anywho, long story short, Lynn not only ended up winning the board game we played, but she was being a showboat about it. My siblings and I got Lynn to agree not to do that anymore, but with the aforementioned issue of her football team being forced to miss a few games, Lynn had a bit of a need to vent."

"Oh, so your younger sister Lynn was just being a sore winner," Carlota remarked, "Sure, that's not necessarily a good thing, but I don't see what's so-"

"Lynn's bragging about winning prompted Luna and Lana to attack her," Lori said, interrupting Carlota in the process and drawing a shocked look out of the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl. "Yeah," Lori continued, "Before we got through to Lynn, her bragging and showboating was something of a problem. She found an alternative method of letting out how she felt, but like I literally said, the issue with her football team was stressing her out."

With a gentle shake of her head, Lori added, "Still doesn't change the fact that it took the combined efforts of me, Leni and Luan to pull Luna away, and the combined effort of Lucy, Lola and Lisa to pull Lana away. When mom and dad got back home from their date night, we had to take Lynn to the hospital because she suffered a broken nose. After that total failure of a game night, we ended up throwing out all of the board games that we own, because Lynn can't control her bragging and showboating tendencies, and Luna and Lana can't control their temper when Lynn acts in that manner."

"So, what happened next?" Carlota asked.

"There was this one time where I borrowed a golf club from my friend Allison, who is Aggro's older twin sister," Lori explained, "You see, I'm a member of the RWHS varsity golf team, and me and my friends on the team have been trying for the longest time to get Allison to join since every time she does play, she scores only holes in one. I'm not sure how she does that, so I figured that it had something to do with that golf club of hers. Allison refuses to use any other golf club, so when my team had an important game coming up, I figured I'd ask Allison if I could borrow the golf club. Surprisingly, she let me borrow it."

"Is it some special made golf club?" Carlota asked.

Shaking her head gently in the negative, Lori replied, "No, it's not. As far as I can tell, Allison's golf club is just some regular four-iron." Leaning back in her seat slightly, the oldest Loud sister continued, "It still doesn't change the fact that by using only Allison's golf club, I played the first absolutely perfect game of golf that I ever played in my life. My perfect playing that day was part of the reason why my varsity team won that weekend. I returned the golf club to Allison the following Monday."

"Anything else?" Carlota asked.

"Yeah, there was this one thing at the elementary school that some of my younger sisters and Bobby's younger sister goes to," Lori explained, a hint of somberness in her tone, "My younger sister Lisa, along with her friend Darcy, were trying to befriend this one boy in their class. I forget what the boy's name was, but he was some super shy kid that I later learned suffered from some sort of social anxiety problem. It kind of took Lisa and Darcy a bit of time, but they managed to get through to the boy in their class. At least that's what Lisa told me one day after everyone was back from school."

"What grade is Lisa and the other kids in?" Carlota asked.

"They're all kindergarteners," Lori replied. With a resigned and troubled sigh, Lori added, "That's what makes the next part all the more tragic."

"Tragic?" Carlota repeated in a tone that clearly conveyed worry, "What happened?"

"The boy that Lisa and Darcy were trying to befriend, from what Lisa told me, also had troubles with being bullied," Lori began to explain, "Apparently there's a trio of older boys at the school who liked making the shy boy suffer. In fact, Lisa claims that the bullying problem might have had a hand in the boy's social anxiety."

"Lori's little sister Lisa is like some sort of super-genius," Bobby remarked, "Lisa is the only person I know of who I believe could do Uncle Carlos's college professor job for him."

"Bobby's right," Lori said, "Lisa is literally the smartest person ever. But that's beside the point. The point is that one day after me, Leni and Luna all got back from High School, we saw that Lisa was, to our complete surprise, crying. When Leni asked Lisa what was wrong, what Lisa told us was something that none of us girls were prepared to hear." Taking a breath to steady herself, Lori said, "Lisa told us that…that the boy that she and Darcy tried to befriend committed suicide."

"W…what…?" Carlota replied, not believing what she was hearing.

"Everyone who knew the boy was quick to blame the elementary school's bullying problem," Lori began to explain, "And known bullies at the school, such as a third grader named Biff and a fifth grader named Chris, were soon ostracized to the point that they both had to transfer to different schools. Lana claimed that she saw a fifth grader named Chandler picking on the boy Lisa and Darcy tried to befriend, but nothing came of that, given that some of the teachers at the school said that this Chandler kid has never done any wrong as far as they knew, so he couldn't possibly have any responsibility."

"Did…did anything else happen after that?" Carlota asked.

"There was this one incident where Lynn tried to beat up her ex-crush Francisco after she heard that he was disqualified from a Kendo tournament at the local community center," Lori said, "I think that Francisco was disqualified in the final round because he used a bamboo sword that was heavier than the bamboo sword that his opponent in the final round was using." With a gentle shake of her head, Lori replied, "I don't know anything else about it, although Luna and I were able to keep Lynn from carrying out, and I'm quoting Lynn on this one, bloody vengeance that would be so bloody that it would make even Lucy feel disturbed if she saw it."

"Lucy is Lori's little sister who has an interest in the macabre," Bobby explained to his cousin.

"Speaking of Lucy," Lori continued with a mildly troubled sigh, "She's involved in the next part of my story." Taking a breath to steady herself, Lori said, "Lucy was bullied at school when an older kid picked up a garbage can and shoved it down over her head. Eventually, fingers were pointed at a fifth-grade boy named Rusty."

"Rusty?" Bobby said in a confused tone, "Hey, isn't that one of Lincoln's friends?"

Nodding in the affirmative, Lori said, "Not only that, but Rusty is also the older brother of a boy in Lucy's grade named Rocky. You see, Lucy and Rocky are…something of an item. It was literally one of the best things ever when Rocky entered the scene for Lucy, especially since it happened after some little punk named Silas broke Lucy's heart. But I'm getting off subject here. Rusty ended up getting suspended from school for what he did to Lucy, even though he claimed that he was innocent the entire time."

"I'm not feeling all that inclined to believe in this Rusty boy," Carlota remarked, a hint of suspicion in her tone.

"No one did," Lori said in a tone of agreement, "Not even Rocky. Anywho, Rusty got suspended a few more times for freaking Lucy out, even though he said that he didn't do anything." With a shrug, Lori said, "I guess the school just got tired of dealing with that Rusty kid, because after a particularly bad incident, Rusty got expelled."

"Hey, I remember Ronnie Anne telling me that a kid at her school was expelled," Bobby remarked, getting Lori to turn and face him, "You're telling me that it was Rusty?"

After nodding in the affirmative, Lori said, "Surprisingly, Rusty getting expelled didn't have a negative impact on Lucy's relationship with Rocky. If anything, I'd say that Rocky became a more caring and attentive person to Lucy."

"Well isn't that sweet," Carlota remarked, "I bet she knew how you feel whenever you spend time with my cousin here."

"Oh, I'd certainly say that Lucy and Rocky will end up becoming the next me and Bobby," Lori replied in a tone of agreement. With a mildly annoyed-sounding sigh, Lori added, "That's why the next part of my story literally ticks me off."

"Why, what happened?" Carlota asked.

"This happened shortly after my friends on the varsity team and I finally got Allison to join us," Lori explained, "You see, we were celebrating winning a game against the team of another school. We got lunch at the local Burpin' Burger, and while we were eating there, Allison got a call from home, telling her that she needed to head back to keep an eye on her younger sister Anna, who's about the same age as my younger sisters Lola and Lana. After I pointed out to Allison how her little sister and my younger sisters were the same age, she asked me if either Lola or Lana liked the Princess Pony series. I told Allison that neither of the twins liked it, although…" Training off a bit, Lori took another steadying breath before saying, "…Although my younger brother Lincoln apparently likes it."

"A…a boy actually likes…I'm sorry, but how old is your missing brother?" Carlota asked.

"Eleven," Bobby explained to his cousin, "Lori's little bro is the same age as Ronnie Anne."

"Yeah, I figured as much," Carlota remarked in a tone of disbelief as she leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest, "I'm sorry, but I'm having a lot of trouble imagining any boy that age liking something aimed at girls under ten years of age."

"That's what Allison and my other friends on the varsity golf team told me after I told them about the time Lincoln clogged the toilet with a Princess Pony book," Lori replied, "After some of them poked a few holes in the story, I literally began to doubt that Lincoln was really the one who clogged the toilet with that Princess Pony book. So, when I got home, I did a thorough search of all of my sisters' bedrooms for any evidence that would help me figure out the truth." With a gentle headshake that conveyed mild disappointment, Lori said, "As it turned out, it was Lucy who clogged the toilet with the Princess Pony book."

"The one dating the boy whose older brother got expelled from school?" Carlota asked. After Lori nodded in the affirmative, Carlota asked, "How old is that sister of yours?"

"Lucy is eight," Lori replied, "And although she's part of the target audience that Princess Pony is aimed at, it's still literally one of the dumbest things ever that Lucy actually likes that garbage, made all the worse by the fact that Lincoln took the fall for her clogging the toilet, missing a convention that he wanted to go to as a result, along with getting grounded for clogging the toilet _and_ being teased by me and my sisters." With a look of consideration on her face, Lori said, "Now that I bring it up, I don't seem to recall Lucy ever poking fun at Lincoln for supposedly liking Princess Pony. I guess that was a sign."

"You and your sisters actually did all of that, Babe?" Bobby asked, looking a little shocked.

"It's a sibling thing between me and my sisters," Lori quickly explained to her boyfriend, "I'm sure you and Ronnie Anne have had similar moments between yourselves from time to time."

"…I'd be lying if I said that I never used the picture of Ronnie Anne from when she was five that I keep in my wallet to tease her a little," Bobby admitted.

"Did anything else happen after that?" Carlota asked.

"Actually, this next part related to the city here," Lori said in an almost conversational tone, "A family moved from England to this city, but they ended up moving to Royal Woods."

"A family from England?" Carlota repeated.

Nodding in the affirmative, Lori explained, "Yeah, it's a family consisting of a mom, a dad and a girl named Mitzie who's the same age as Lynn. Mitzie's some fair skinned girl with long blonde hair that had streaks of color in it. When I first met her, Mitzie was wearing this baggy hooded jacket that looked like the Union Jack flag, baggy jeans with torn knees, and large sneakers. She ended up changing her outfit so now wears a white long-sleeved shirt under a light gray sweater-vest, this plaid skirt that reached close to halfway down her legs, socks that almost reaches her knees and a pair of brown shoes. Also, Mitzie got rid of the colored streaks in her hair and now wears her hair in two curly side pigtails that reach about halfway down her chest."

"Is this Mitzie girl a good kid?" Carlota asked.

"Well before she changed her wardrobe, Mitzie did get Flip, the owner of a local gas station slash convenience store, in a lot of legal trouble in retaliation for Flip ripping off Luan's crush Benny," Lori replied, "So yeah, I'd say that Mitzie is a good kid. She's good friends with Lynn and Ulfric now, by the way." With a troubled sigh, Lori said, "And that…that's it for everything of note that happened before the shameful thing that happened with Aggro."

"About time I heard about what happened with Bobby's friend," Carlota said, leaning forward a bit in anticipation of hearing what Lori had to say.

"The thing involving Aggro started during a golf game that the varsity golf team and I were playing before the game where I borrowed Allison's golf club," Lori began, "As the girls and I were playing, Allison came over to us, accompanied by Aggro and their younger sister Amy, who also goes to RWHS with Aggro, Allison, myself, Leni and Luna."

"Go on," Carlota said.

"Speaking of Leni and Luna," Lori went on, "They were there at the game before the one where I borrowed Allison's golf club. As such, that was the day that they met Allison, Aggro and Amy." Taking a breath to steady herself, Lori continued, "After that day, I would often call sibling meetings so my sisters could help me brainstorm ideas for helping me to get Allison to join the varsity golf team, as this was a bit before Allison ended up joining us."

"Alright," Carlota replied.

"During these sibling meetings," Lori said, "Whenever either I or one of my sisters other than Leni comes up with an idea that might help me get Allison to join, Leni herself comes up with some random idea that could be done to impress Aggro instead. My other sisters and I would tell Leni off for getting off subject, Leni would shrink back out of shame, then the sibling meeting would continue as normal."

"I see," Carlota remarked.

"Then one night," Lori continued, "A few days before I successfully got Allison to join the varsity golf team, my sisters and I were having another one of our sibling meetings to talk about how to get Allison to join. During the meeting, after a few ideas were thrown around about how to get Allison to join, Leni once again suggested something to impress Aggro. Luna must have been more frustrated with this tendency of Leni's than I was, because after Leni's latest suggestion, Luna stood up and asked Leni in a tone that was more or less shouting why she keeps trying to suggest impressing Aggro, rather than help the rest of us help me brainstorm ideas that can be used to get Allison to join the varsity golf team." With a chuckle that sounded self-amused in a way that acknowledged some bit of irony that was in play, Lori said, "Leni must have been even more frustrated than Luna, because in response to Luna getting up and shouting, Leni got up and shouted even louder that the reason why she keeps trying to bring up ideas that can be done to impress Aggro is because she's in love with him."

After hearing this from Lori, both Carlota and Bobby looked very much surprised. "…Wow," Carlota remarked in a mildly stunned tone, "I did _not_ see that coming."

"None of my sisters or I did," Lori admitted, "Although looking back on everything, I can't believe I didn't pick up on the fact that Leni was in love with Bobby's best friend." With a bit of a chuckle, Lori said, "After everything settled down, my sisters and I immediately switched gears to focus on how to help Leni win Aggro over. I even called Bobby so I could ask him a few things about Aggro."

"So _that_ ' _s_ why you called me that one night and asked me about Aggro," Bobby said to his girlfriend, "That's a relief. For a while there, I was afraid that you were considering leaving me for my best friend. That would be a really divisive thing between me and Aggro."

"Oh, Boo-Boo Bear, I'd never want things between us to end," Lori replied in a kind, sweet tone, "You're the world's most perfect guy." Straightening herself up a bit, Lori added, "Besides, Leni would literally never forgive me if I stole her crush from her, just like how I'd never forgive her if she stole you from me."

"I'm…glad to see that you appreciate me," Bobby remarked.

"Just like how Leni appreciates having someone like Aggro around," Lori said, "My other sisters and I really wanted Leni to succeed in getting Aggro to like her back, especially since Leni came home crying after things went south between her and Chaz at a party that he threw."

"Yeah, I heard about that," Bobby remarked, "I still can't believe that it happened."

"Just like how I literally can't believe how my dad was literally acting like an idiotic tyrant," Lori replied, a mild hint of bitterness in her tone.

"Oh boy," Carlota said in a worried tone, "I don't think I'm going to like the sound of this."

"You're right to think that," Lori remarked, a hint of sadness in her tone. Taking another steadying breath, Lori explained, "You see, Allison, Aggro and the rest of their family owns Odin-Dono's Swedish-Japanese Cuisine, one of the many fusion restaurants in Royal Woods. Odin-Dono's is doing very well in Royal Woods right now. In fact, it's doing so well that other fusion restaurants like Giovanni Chang's and especially Aloha Comrade are losing a lot of business to Odin-Dono's. Jean Juan's is still doing well, but that's mostly due to the fact that Jean Juan's is more or less a household name in Royal Woods."

"So, the restaurant that Bobby's best friend's family owns is very successful," Carlota remarked, "I don't see why your father would be so uptight about it."

"My dad works for Aloha Comrade," Lori replied in something of a dry tone, "One of the restaurants that's losing business to Odin-Dono's."

"…Oh," Carlota said, looking mildly dumbfounded.

"And this is where my dad being an idiotic tyrant comes into play," Lori began, "You see, my dad and a few other guys who work at Aloha Comrade are not fond of Allison and Aggro's family at all, since their family owns the restaurant that they're losing business to. As such, my dad tried to forbid my sisters and I from hanging out with the Aces, who we're friends with. He even grounded Leni this one time because she decided to have lunch at Odin-Dono's one day. He said that he didn't want my sisters and I to 'fraternize with the enemy'."

"That sounds so wrong on so many levels," Carlota remarked in a tone that carried a hint of disgust aimed at the Loud family patriarch.

"It gets worse," Lori went on, "Shortly after Leni told my sisters and I that she was in love with Aggro, Bobby and I were able to get Aggro to come over to my family's place."

"Hoo boy," Bobby remarked in a knowing tone, "Yeah, I remember that, and I certainly remember what it leads to."

"Why? What happened?" Carlota asked.

"We got Leni and Aggro alone in the kitchen," Lori explained, "And my sisters, Bobby and I all watched from the doorway as Leni confessed to Aggro how she felt about him." With something of a sad hint in her tone, Lori said, "Do you want to know what Aggro said to Leni in response?"

"What…what did he say?" Carlota asked, alarms going off in her head due to the tone that Lori was using.

"Aggro said to Leni," Lori replied in the same sad hint in her tone, "And I'm quoting him on this one, 'If you want to give me your heart, then I hope you'll accept mine in return'." With a nod, Lori continued, "Aggro then asked Leni if he could kiss her."

"...He actually accepted your sister?" Carlota replied, a hint of confusion in her tone, "Why do you sound so sad about it, then? That's a good thing! Not to mention the fact that what Aggro said to your sister is one of the sweetest things that I have ever-"

"My dad came in at that moment and literally ruined everything in the worse way possible," Lori replied, interrupting Carlota on the process.

"…Oh no…" Carlota replied as she preemptively facepalmed, knowing full well what Lori was going to tell her was not going to be good.

"Yeah, get this," Lori said, "My dad actually walked in on Leni and Aggro kissing, right? Apparently, seeing that triggered my dad so much, that when he left the kitchen for a minute, he came back with a handgun that he keeps in his and mom's room and _forced Aggro to back away from Leni at gunpoint_. Dad then told Aggro that if he or any of his siblings ever comes near our house again, then he won't be held accountable for what he'd do in response."

"…Oh, my God," Carlota said, her right hand still partly covering her face as part of the facepalm, "Your dad actually threatened Aggro with a gun?"

"Not only that," Lori went on, "But after Aggro left, dad ordered Bobby to leave because he wanted to talk to my sisters and I alone. After Bobby left, dad went on about how he couldn't express how disappointed in all of us he was, and that by having one of the Aces over we were undermining ourselves because the Aces own the restaurant that the restaurant that dad works at is losing business to, and that all of us were grounded until we 'learned the error of our ways', as he had so colorfully put it."

"Your dad ground you and your sisters just because you guys had Aggro over?" Carlota asked, sounding very much appalled.

"Yeah, and let me make things clear here," Lori said, "My dad grounded me and _all nine of my sisters_. This includes my sister Lily, who I should point out is fifteen-months-old. My dad is so paranoid about the fusion restaurant business in Royal Woods that he literally _grounded a baby_ because he thought my sisters and I were quote unquote 'betraying him'."

"Did your mom have anything to say about this?" Carlota asked.

"Oh, my mom literally tore into my dad when my sisters and I told her what happened," Lori remarked, "At least my sisters and I still have _one_ competent parent. The argument that they had lasted at least half the night, keeping my sisters and I up the whole time. The following morning when my sisters and I came downstairs, our dad told us that we were all still grounded regardless of what mom said, and that he'd disown any of us he finds out 'fraternizes with the enemy' from that point forward."

"Your dad actually threatened to disown you if you try to be friends with Aggro and his siblings?!" Carlota nearly exclaimed, clearly offended by what she was hearing.

Nodding in the affirmative, Lori replied, "The way that my dad was acting, all of his paranoia, the fact that he literally threatened Aggro with a gun…it was really starting to wear down on me and my sisters." Choking back a bit of crying, Lori said, "I think that Leni took everything the hardest out of all of us."

"What makes you say that?" Carlota asked, looking and sounding worried.

"Think about it for a minute, Carlota," Lori began, "Leni had her heart broken at the party Chaz had. She literally thought that she wouldn't find anyone else ever again. Then Aggro came in. He was everything that Leni needed. Aggro being there reminded Leni how to open her heart up again. His being there healed Leni's heartbreak. Aggro being there even made Leni forget about Lincoln having run away from home, which I thought would never happen given that Leni is the one among my sisters and I who took Lincoln's disappearance the hardest." Sighing in a resigned tone, Lori continued with a hint of anger in her tone, "Then my dad literally ruined everything just because the restaurant he works at is losing business to the one that Aggro's family owns. Because of my dad's _fucking_ pride, Leni thought that she lost her second chance at love." The anger in her tone dissipating, Lori added, "It...it was literally way too much."

"Did she run away from home, too?" Carlota asked in a worried tone, "Because if she did, then I hope the police will eventually-"

"Leni tried to commit suicide," Lori said in a sad, resigned tone, cutting Carlota off in the process and rendering both her and Bobby silent. With a sigh, Lori continued, "Key word here being _tried_. Thankfully Leni's attempt failed, although she did have to stay in the hospital for a while because of the bleeding she suffered when she tried cutting her wrists. And this is saying nothing of the therapy that Leni is going to be needing for a while."

"Your…your sister actually tried to…" Bobby said, finding it difficult to even form words, "…Dios mio…"

"The whole thing threw my family for a loop," Lori said, "My mom and the youngest of my sisters were crying, me, Luna, Luan and Lynn tried to keep a brave face, Pop-Pop nearly went ballistic when he heard what happened." With an ironic chuckle, Lori added, "Silver lining, my dad literally learned his lesson, given that Leni's suicide attempt snapped him out of his idiotic paranoia over the fusion restaurant business in Royal Woods."

"Will you and your family be okay, Babe?" Bobby asked, "Just so you know, you can count on me if you and your folks need any help."

Smiling in an appreciative manner, Lori said, "Thanks, Boo-Boo Bear." After the three teenagers finished their lunch at the café, they took off, heading to the Casagrande apartment building to hang out for a bit before Bobby and Lori took their leave to head back to Royal Woods.

* * *

Lincoln not only learned way more about what was going on back where he abandoned his old life, but what he learned actually disturbed him on some level. What Lincoln learned also made him do something that he thought he would never do again; feel sympathy for the girls that he once referred to as his sisters.

Returning to the abandoned building that he's taken to living in, Lincoln sat down on his pitiful excuse for a bed, pulled a mini spiral bond notebook out, wrote something in it, then set he notebook off to the side on the floor so he could lay out on his bed. The boy without a family was tired, both from the odd job he worked and a little bit of tiredness left over from the previous night, not to mention what he learned when he eavesdropped on Lori's conversation earlier.

Letting his tiredness take him off to dreamland, Lincoln eased into sleep, entertaining dreams related to the list that he wrote out. The notebook was laying open, so one could actually see the list that Lincoln had written;

 _List of people to kill if I ever return to Royal Woods_

 _Francisco_

 _Chandler (not certain if he's really guilty or not, but I never liked him anyway)_

 _Rusty_

 _Mr_. _Loud_

END, BROKEN MIRROR: NEW WAR CHAPTER FIVE

Author's notes:

…Wow. This chapter went on for _way_ longer than I expected. Anywho, a lot of what Lori told Carlota in this chapter are variations of what would happen in the collection of one-shots if Lincoln wasn't around to play his part. Given that he's still living in the city, a lot of things happen in Royal Woods due to Lincoln's absence. Anywho, the next chapter will see a mention to something that happens in one of my other Loud House stories.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Broken Mirror: New War

Chapter six: Domestic Drama

Lincoln, the boy without a family, had a lot going through his mind as he was having breakfast in the local Burpin' Burger located in the city that he ran away to after he had been decried as bad luck by the people who he now considers as his ex-family. The previous day, Lincoln by chance spotted Carlota Casagrande grabbing lunch at an outdoor café with her cousin Bobby Santiago and Bobby's girlfriend (and Lincoln's older ex-sister) Lori Loud. The two were apparently visiting the city, Bobby because he had family living here, and Lori because she obviously came along to support her precious Boo-Boo Bear.

Taking care not to be seen by any of the teenagers, Lincoln was able to listen in on the conversation that they were having. As a result, the white-haired boy learned quite a bit about how things were going back in Royal Woods, where he had abandoned his old life after resolving to run away. Lincoln did indeed learn a lot about what was going on where he used to live. A lot more than he expected, really, and most of what he learned…wasn't sitting right with Lincoln. Many times, during Lincoln's ongoing time living as a runaway, he would wish that something bad would happen to his ex-sisters, a sort of karma to deal with them after the way they treated him. Well, Lincoln's wish of karma dealing with his ex-sisters ended up coming true.

…Only, things ended up working a little _too_ well to Lincoln's liking. The white-haired boy only wanted something roughly as bad as what those girls put him through to happen to the girls in return. He didn't expect, nor did he want, some sort of interest to be thrown into the mix. He had no idea that, due to his extended absence from Royal Woods, things were beginning to fall apart back in the town that he once called home. Things that Lincoln never wanted to have happen.

He never wanted his brainy ex-sister to come home from school crying because a boy she tried to befriend was bullied to the point that he took his own life. Lincoln never wanted three of his ex-sisters to get into a violent altercation with each other just because one couldn't control her sore winner tendencies and the other two couldn't control their tempers. The white-haired boy never wanted his gothic younger ex-sister to be bullied, and by one of his (Lincoln's) own friends, no less; Lincoln also never wanted his gothic younger ex-sister's role in the incident where the toilet was clogged with the Princess Pony book to be revealed. He never wanted his sporty ex-sister, arguably the ex-sister that he's the most upset with, to have her heart broken by a crush.

He never wanted his ditzy, fashion-loving ex-sister to try and kill herself.

" _All_ … _all of what Lori had said yesterday_ …" Lincoln thought in a somber tone as he sat in what has more or less become his usual booth at the local Burpin' Burger, "… _I can't help but_ … _but shake the feeling that if I was there that_ … _that somehow a lot of those things wouldn_ ' _t have happened_. _Or at the very least wouldn_ ' _t have been anywhere near as bad as_ -" Lincoln's thought process was cut off midway through when, once again, some breaking news story on the TV that was mounted to the wall in the Burpin' Burger prompted one of the other patrons to ask for the volume to be turned up. When the volume on the TV was raised, Lincoln couldn't believe what he heard.

"Earlier today," the news anchor said as he sat behind his desk at the news studio, "Royal Woods Elementary School, the local elementary school of Royal Woods, Michigan, was rocked by multiple explosions which were later discovered to have been the work of homemade bombs. Dozens of people at the school were seriously hurt in the bombing, and at least twenty others, most of which were students, were all killed. Experts estimated that if it wasn't for a stomach flu strain going around making over half of the school's student population miss school the day the attack took place, the toll of injuries and deaths would have been far greater, both of them being at least doubled."

…Wait, what? Lincoln's old school was seriously attacked by someone with _fucking bombs_?! The boy without a family was instantly alarmed, especially since he remembered that four of his ex-sisters were students at the school. Lincoln didn't want, nor would he ever want, any of his ex-sisters to go through any of the bad things that he heard Lori mention during her conversation with Carlota and Bobby the previous day.

But a bombing…that was something Lincoln never wanted _anyone_ to go through.

"The local mayor of Royal Woods came under fire after he made a comment on social media saying that the bombing was clearly the work of a mentally disturbed person suffering from a mental illness," the news anchor went on, "Especially after evidence that was collected confirmed that the attack on Royal Woods Elementary was actually the work of an organized group that was clearly working with an agenda. We'll bring you more as this story develops."

The news then shifted to some story about a local sports team, but Lincoln wasn't paying attention. Amid the worried mutterings of the other patrons in the Burpin' Burger talking about the attack that just happened, the white-haired boy could not help but worry about what things were like back in the town where he abandoned his old life. Were any of his younger ex-sisters that attends RWES okay? Were any of them still alive? Lincoln was besides himself with worry over how things were being handled over in Royal Woods.

Lincoln also gave some passing thought to the fact that he was rather lucky to have not been at the school at the time of the attack. He might have gotten seriously hurt otherwise.

Shaking that thought out of his head, Lincoln resolved to go see Carlota later in the day. She was the cousin of Bobby and Ronnie Anne, the latter being a student at RWES. Lincoln hoped that he'd be able to learn if any of his ex-sisters, or Ronnie Anne and everyone else Lincoln could think of, were okay. He'd hate for any of them to have gotten seriously hurt. That was something he would never wish to have happen.

Ever.

* * *

As Lincoln made his way to the apartment building/bodega store where the Casagrandes lived, he ended up running into the very girl who he was hoping to find. "Oh, you're that boy again!" Carlota said in a mildly surprised tone as she bumped into Lincoln, "I'm guessing there's something you want to talk to me about?" Holding up a plastic shopping bag, Carlota remarked, "I was just getting back from taking care of picking up a few things from the store for my grandmother. She's got some serious cooking planned for tonight's dinner."

"Did you hear about the attack at Royal Woods Elementary on the news?" Lincoln asked right away in a worried tone, deciding not to beat around the bush. In response to Lincoln's question, Carlota's expression attained a concerned and worried hint.

"…Yeah, it was all over the news earlier," Carlota replied, "Heck, it's probably still all over the news right now." Putting her free hand on her hip, Carlota continued, "You know, I have a cousin who's about your age that lives in Royal Woods. She's a student over at Royal Woods Elementary. My family and I were worried about her when we heard about the attack, but when we called our relatives living in Royal Woods to ask about it, my cousin Bobby said that his little sister, my cousin who goes to the school, was out sick that day due to the stomach flu." With a nod, Carlota added, "Bobby also told me that out of his girlfriend's four younger sisters who also goes to the elementary school, three of them were also out sick with the stomach flu, and the little brainy one was doing something over at the local college at the time."

After hearing this from the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl, Lincoln breathed a sigh of relief; Ronnie Anne, Lucy and the twins were all out sick, and Lisa was doing something over at the college at the time of the attack on RWES. At least his younger ex-sisters and the girl who he considered as more than just a friend were all okay. Lincoln was still a little worried about a few other students, such as Clyde, Liam, Zach and Rocky (after hearing about what Rusty did, Lincoln no longer cares about whether or not the older Spokes boy is okay). But that would have to wait for another time; the white-haired boy didn't want to risk pushing for anymore information, lest Carlota got some sort of sneaking suspicion that Lincoln has some history in Royal Woods (which he does, actually).

"My cousin Bobby also told me about how all of his friend Aggro's younger siblings who goes to the elementary school were also all out sick with the stomach flu as well," Carlota added, "But that's about the extent of what Bobby knows." With a chuckle, Carlota said, "Who would have ever guessed that things ended up being significantly less worse because of the stomach flu, of all things?"

"Anything is possible," Lincoln remarked in a tone of agreement as he gave a single nod. With a sigh, Lincoln said, "I still can't believe something like that would happen."

"Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with you on that," Carlota replied in a mildly somber tone, "I mean, compared to the attack at the school, the riot that occurred at the Hispanic Heritage Month festival quite a while back seems like nothing." With a sigh that carried a hint of sadness, Carlota continued, "I never thought I'd ever say something along the lines of the attack on the festival looking like nothing, especially considering what my family went through."

"…Yeah, I saw what happened to Mr. Casagrande," Lincoln replied. Upon hearing Lincoln say that, Carlota perked up instantly.

"…Excuse me?" Carlota replied, shocked to hear what the boy without a family said.

"Sorry about not telling you about this earlier," Lincoln said, "But I ran into your dad a while ago." Lincoln then went on to explain how he also met Carlota's mother and younger brother, and how he was able to connect the dots about Carlota being related to them. It took Lincoln a few minutes, but Carlota listened to every word the white-haired boy said. "…Then when I arrived at the scene of the ruined festival, I saw that a paramedic was tending to your father," Lincoln said as he finished explaining himself, "I was horrified to see that he was seriously hurt, but I was also relieved to see that he was still alive."

Shaking a little as tears began to fall down the sides of his face, Lincoln said, "I'm…I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. If I had known why those men were asking me for directions to the festival, I wouldn't have-" Lincoln was cut off when Carlota did something that he wasn't counting on; she got down on one knee so that she'd be level with him, gently threw her arms around him, and drew him into a hug.

"…It's not your fault," Carlota replied in a gentle, sympathetic tone, tears falling down the sides of her face as well, "You had no way of knowing what those two horrific men were planning to do. You had no way of knowing that my father would have gotten seriously hurt. You had…" Stopping short to choke back some crying and to take a steadying breath, Carlota continued, "…You had no way of knowing that my mom and my younger brother CJ were both going to get killed in the attack at the festival."

"…W…what…?" Lincoln said, time seeming to have stopped for the boy without a family upon hearing what the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl had just told him.

"Y…yeah," Carlota began to explain in a somber, resigned tone, "My mother and my younger brother both went to the festival to meet up with my father. All three of them were there at the festival at the time. My father was talking to a group of his students in one part of the festival area. He told me that mom and CJ were somewhere else on the festival grounds. Then the…" Taking another steadying breath, Carlota said, "…Then the riot sparked up. From what my father told me, his students tried to protect him when some angry rioters tried to assault him. Two of my father's students who tried protecting him were some black girl and some white boy who both ended up getting killed in the riot. My father…my father didn't learn what happened to my mother and my younger brother until he woke up in the hospital after he was taken there for further treatment."

"I'm…I'm sorry," Lincoln said in something of a hoarse tone as his crying began to make what he said a little difficult to understand, "I'm so sorry."

"I already told you," Carlota said in as much of a reassuring tone as she could manage, putting a bit of an extra squeeze into the hug she was giving to the boy without a family, "None of what happened was your fault. You had no way of knowing what those two men had in mind. No one could have predicted what was going to happen." Breaking out of the hug from Lincoln, Carlota gently laid her hands on his shoulders, getting him to look up at her. "Besides, the men who had killed at the riot were all punished," the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl added.

"Punished?" Lincoln asked, repeating the last word that Carlota had said.

"Two of the men who killed at the riot were arrested by police," Carlota began to explain, "They were tried, and now both of them are doing serious time in prison. As for the other four men, they were all killed by Broken Mirror."

"I…I heard about that Broken Mirror person on the news a few times," Lincoln said as he calmed down a bit from his crying.

"Well who hasn't heard about Broken Mirror?" Carlota replied, "I mean, he was all over the news when members of the violent youth gang were turning up killed, left behind with calling cards. And now, the same's being done with the violent, racist rioters and a few other bastards who are holding me and others in this city who share my ethnicity responsible for everything they think is wrong." With a sigh, Carlota added, "You remember when I was on the news because someone was trying to chase me down and possibly kill me, only for that person to get killed before he could even reach me?"

"Didn't Broken Mirror end up killing that man?" Lincoln asked, knowing more about that event than Carlota could have ever guessed.

"His calling card was left on the man's body, so there's no doubt about it," Carlota replied in an affirmative tone. With a bit of a giggle, Carlota continued, "Promise that you'll keep what I'm about to tell you a secret?"

"What is it?" Lincoln asked.

"When I was asked if I saw Broken Mirror, I told the reporter that I didn't see anything. But…" Leaning closer to Lincoln, Carlota whispered into his ear, "…I was actually lying about that. I saw Broken Mirror lay his calling card on the man that he killed. I didn't see his face, and I couldn't even tell if Broken Mirror really was a he due to that jacket, but I could tell that the vigilante that has a lot of people in this city in a tizzy is really just a kid."

Lincoln was mildly alarmed to hear Carlota tell him this. He had some lingering feeling that Carlota might have seen him in action when he killed that man who was trying to chase down and possibly kill her. However, Carlota admitted that she didn't see his face, and she couldn't even tell if the vigilante who saved her was a boy or a girl; that hooded jacket of his is really helping out in concealing his identity big time. Knowing that Carlota had no way of really knowing that it was really him who is Broken Mirror, Lincoln relaxed.

Standing up, Carlota said as she looked down to the boy without a family, "Thanks for stopping by again to see me and check up on me and my family. It really means a lot that you seem to care so much about us."

"I actually do care," Lincoln replied, honestly meaning what he said.

With a mildly amused smile on her face, Carlota said, "I wish that sporty sister of yours who you got that jersey for would appreciate you more. She doesn't seem to realize how sweet of a little brother she's got."

"…Yeah," Lincoln replied, a mild hint of somberness in his tone, "Me, too." The two of them, the white-haired boy and the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl, both parted ways, Carlota to head home and Lincoln to head off to find another odd job to do. Despite what he saw on the news, despite what little he was able to learn about how things were going back in Royal Woods prior to the attack, despite learning that two people that he would have loved to have as family were both killed at the festival a while ago, Lincoln had to put all of that off to the side for the time being. The boy without a family needed to continue to earn his living, given that he was still living in the city.

Lincoln had to stay in the city; he had a feeling that Broken Mirror was going to be needed for quite a while yet.

* * *

Over the next few weeks to a month and a half, Lincoln continued to work various odd jobs around the city. A lot of his clients for those jobs were some of the first people who hired him for odd jobs here and there; they were impressed with the white-haired boy's work ethic from the first time they hired him, so he ended up becoming someone that they usually went to. Lincoln was also good at saving up the money that he earned; since he only had himself to support, Lincoln didn't need to spend any money beyond what was needed to buy food for himself and some personal hygiene products.

There were even a few times when some of Lincoln's usual clients allowed him use of the shower in their homes, mostly after Lincoln told them (lied to them) that the shower at his place was broken; this solved a lingering problem that the boy without a family was wanting to address for quite some time. There were even a few times where, in addition to being paid for a job, a client, usually one of the kind old people, would give Lincoln some old clothes; speaking of clothes, there were also a few times where a client even allowed Lincoln to do his laundry at their place, usually because Lincoln was doing chores for them, and one of the chores was laundry; the white-haired boy was simply able to throw his own stuff in.

Lincoln was even able to wash his Broken Mirror outfit without raising any suspicion.

One evening, after he had returned to the abandoned building that had become his home, Lincoln laid on his pitiful bed as he looked up at the ceiling of the room he was in. As he stared at the ceiling of the abandoned building he was in, Lincoln was thinking. Thinking about the Casagrandes, the family of kind people who have shown Lincoln nothing but kindness and consideration. They were great folks; the kind of family that Lincoln wished that he had been born into.

…And how did he repay the kindness that the Casagrandes had shown him? By getting Carlos Sr. beaten and both Frida and Carlos Jr. killed.

Lincoln was still besides himself with guilt because, due to him telling those two men how to get to the Hispanic Heritage Month festival, the Casagrandes were put through a hell that no family ever deserved to go through. Lincoln longed to do something to make up for the horrific wrong that he did. The white-haired boy wished to avenge the deaths of the woman that he would have loved to have as a mother, of the boy that he would have loved to have as an older brother. But he couldn't make up for it.

Mostly because he already _did_.

Back when he thought that the worse the Casagrandes suffered was Carlos Sr. getting assaulted, Lincoln swore to himself that he'd track down the four men who killed at the festival but weren't arrested by police and kill them himself. The boy without a family carried out his vengeance, slaying all four of the men in question. He even picked up a gun (that was equipped with a silencer) that was at the time loaded with a full clip, and a few extra full clips for the gun, at one of the places that he stopped off at. That made killing the four men, plus others who later carried out acts of violent racism, loads easier.

Granted, two of the men who killed at the festival were apprehended by police and they are now currently doing time in prison, and because of that, Lincoln technically had no way of knowing whether or not he really did avenge the deaths of Carlos Sr.'s wife and son. To a lesser extent, the boy without a family also had no way of knowing if he really avenged the beating that the older Carlos suffered, since everyone who simply assaulted others at the festival (but not kill) were also taken care of; he heard on the news that the last of those who simply assaulted at the festival had been arrested, and Lincioln himself, under the guise of Broken Mirror, had personally killed a few of those who had assaulted at the festival.

Lincoln knew that every guilty person from the riot at the Hispanic Heritage Month festival was either serving time or dead. Since none of the guilty parties ultimately got away with what they did, the white-haired boy knew that either he avenged what the Casagrandes went through, or the law did. With that thought, the boy without a family began to relax.

…Still, Lincoln wanted to do _something_ to make up for the fact that he got two people he would have loved to have as family killed. Turning onto his side so that he faced the wall that his pitiful bed was up against, the white-haired boy thought about that as he slowly drifted off into a somewhat uneasy sleep.

END, BROKEN MIRROR: NEW WAR CHAPTER SIX

Author's notes;

So...yeah, the Casagrandes suffered more than Lincoln knew. He's feeling beyond guilty about what his mistake led to. I apologize if what happened here shocked and upset some people, but I wanted there to be some serious feelings of heartbreak and tragedy going on, so that Lincoln would have all the more reason to do what I have planned for him to do in the next chapter. Here's a bit of a spoiler alert; Lincoln is going to get his wish.

Side note: the bit about RWES on the news is a reference to 'Ten Reasons'. The 'Broken Mirror' stories take place in a different setting than the one-shot collection and 'Ten Reasons', so I figured that I should do a few bits about how certain events from 'TR' would play out in this different setting.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Broken Mirror: New War

Chapter seven: Avenging Angel

It's been roughly two months or so since Lincoln, the boy without a family, heard on the news what happened in his old hometown of Royal Woods. The white-haired boy was beyond shocked to hear about the attack on his old school. It brought Lincoln some measure of comfort when Carlota Casagrande, a girl living in the city that he ran away to, told him about how she was told by her cousin Bobby that a number of students at are students at the school were either out sick that day, or were somewhere else entirely.

…But then any comfort Lincoln got from learning who specifically wasn't hurt in that attack was dashed. Dashed when Carlota informed him that her mother and younger brother, Frida and Carlos Jr., were both killed by an angry, rioting mob during a festival that took place a couple of months back. That riot ended up happening because Lincoln gave directions to the festival to two grown men. When those men got to the festival, they called in the rest of the rioters, and that's when the chaos happened. Those two men, along with four others, ended up killing a combined nine people; the rest of the rioters only injured a whole lot of others.

Granted, Lincoln ended up avenging those who were killed. Under his vigilante guise of Broken Mirror, Lincoln tracked down the four men who had killed at the festival but were not arrested; two of the men Lincoln claimed the lives of were the two men he gave directions to. Even though he was doing it to avenge everyone who was harmed and/or killed at the riot, Lincoln tracked down and killed the men who escaped because he was personally inspired to do so upon seeing that Carlos Sr., the father of Carlota, was beaten badly in the riot, albeit he wasn't killed. Lincoln wanted to avenge what was done to the Casagrandes.

The boy without a family had no idea at the time that more happened to the Casagrandes than just Carlos Sr. getting really, _really_ roughed up.

Lincoln, with a burning desire to avenge two people from a family that he would have loved to belong to, was now walking the streets at around bedtime; earlier in the day, after Lincoln had just returned from another odd job that he did to earn some money so that he could support himself, saw that the abandoned building that he had taken to living in had been condemned by the city. Luckily for Lincoln, no one had gone into the building yet, so the white-haired boy was able to sneak back in, collect his stuff that he left there, then sneak his way back out.

So now Lincoln was, once again, without a home. He would have to find another abandoned building to live in, if only for shelter. …But then again, how long would it be until _that_ building was also condemned by the city? Would the boy without a family be forced to move from abandoned building to abandoned building, so long as he lived in the city? Lincoln knew that he needed to come up with a plan to-

"Hey, it's you again!" a familiar older man's voice called out, getting Lincoln out of his thoughts and to look up; while he was thinking as he walked, Lincoln ended up walking past the bodega store/apartment building where the Casagrandes lived. In fact, at the time he walked by, Hector Casagrande, the man who had called out to him, was coming out of his store, as he was closing it for the night. "What are you doing out this late, young man?" Hector asked, "It's a bit late, don't you think?"

"I was…" Lincoln said, "…I was just going to find some place to go for the night. I need to-"

"Hey, you're that kid!" Carlota's familiar voice called out, cutting Lincoln off mid-sentence and prompting both him and Hector to turn and see Carlota come walking up. "Well this is certainly a surprise," Carlota began, "I only came out here to tell Grandpa Hector that Grandma Rosa wants him to hurry it up and come in for dinner, but I never expected to run into you!" Seeing that Lincoln was carrying a duffle bag, Carlota asked, "Are you going to a sleepover?"

The boy without a family shook his head in response. "…No, I just need to find a place to sleep is all," Lincoln replied.

"Why do you need to find a place to sleep?" Carlota asked, "I mean, don't you and your sister have a home you live at?"

"Wait a minute here, I'm confused," Hector said to his granddaughter while pointing at Lincoln, "I thought that this boy here was actually a homeless orphan."

"Grandpa!" Carlota nearly exclaimed in a shocked and mildly offended tone, "How can you jump to such a conclusion?!"

"Umm, actually," Lincoln spoke up, getting both Casagrandes to turn and face him, "That's a bit of a story." Over the next few minutes, Lincoln told them what they needed to know. He told them that Hector was right about him being homeless. The white-haired boy told them that the reason why Carlota thought that he had a sister was because when he first met her while looking for something to do to try and earn a living, Carlota somehow jumped to the conclusion that he had an older sister; Lincoln only went with it because he was afraid that if Carlota knew the truth, then she would have contacted the police or CPS or something like that. Lincoln also told them that up until a few hours ago, he had been living in an abandoned building somewhere in the city, pretty much since a few days after the school fundraiser Carlota was a part of was ruined by that gang of violent youths.

"…I was able to get some stuff I was keeping in there out," Lincoln said as he was finishing his story, "But since what was pretty much my home here is more or less inaccessible now, I have to go find another abandoned building or something else along those lines to live in.

"…Wow," Hector said in a mildly shocked and stunned tone, still digesting everything that he was told by the white-haired boy, "I can't believe a child your age is struggling to live on the streets here in the city. And alone, no less."

"Why…why didn't you say anything?" Carlota asked, her tone clearly showing that she was heartbroken to hear everything that Lincoln had gone though.

"I told you, I was afraid that you'd call the police," Lincoln replied to the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl. After the boy without a family gave his response to them, Carlota and Hector studied him for a few seconds.

"…Carlota, go inside," Hector said, "I want you to tell your grandmother that she's going to have to set an extra plate at the table for dinner."

"Wait, what?" both Carlota and Lincoln nearly exclaimed in unison.

"I'm sorry, but I just can't stand to see a good boy like this having to live on the streets," Hector replied as he turned to face his granddaughter, "He's going to stay overnight, then we'll try to figure something out sometime tomorrow."

"Where will he sleep, Grandpa?" Carlota asked.

"He can stay in C…" Hector began, but upon realizing what he was saying, he stopped himself short before he could finish what he was saying. With a mildly resigned sigh, Hector continued, "…The guest room. He can stay in the guest room, Carlota." Turning to face Lincoln, Hector added, "Assuming, of course, you want to stay in the guest room."

Looking up to them, Lincoln saw the warm, gentle expressions of Hector and his granddaughter. The kind of welcoming looks that wanted what was best for him, the kind that felt like he was someone who mattered to them, the kind that wanted him to be at home.

Their home.

With a small but appreciative smile, Lincoln said as a tear fell down the side of his face, "If…if it wouldn't be too much trouble."

With a good-natured laugh, Hector said as he patted Lincoln on the back, "Nonsense, my boy! There's always room for one more! Although I do have to warn you, my granddaughter and I are part of a family of six, so things _might_ be a bit cramped."

" _My ex_ - _sisters alone outnumber your family of six_ ," Lincoln thought dryly. Speaking out loud, Lincoln said, "At least it won't be lonely."

"That's the spirit!" Hector said in a cheerful tone as he led Lincoln and Carlota into the apartment building, "I hope that you have an appetite my boy, because my wife can cook up a storm!" As the older Hispanic gentleman went on, Lincoln felt oddly at ease. Like he was actually at home.

* * *

Carlos Sr. was surprised to see that Lincoln was the boy that his father was talking about, but after an explanation from Lincoln, Hector and Carlota, Carlos Sr. understood and had no objections to Lincoln staying overnight at the very least. Lincoln also ended up meeting the rest of the Casagrande family when he came in.

First was Hector's wife Rosa; her black hair was rolled into a bun on the back of her head, and she wore a dark blue dress under a greenish-blue apron, a pair of black shoes that peeked out from under the edge of her dress, and a simple pair of yellow earrings. Rosa gave off an aura of kindness that made her seem like the stereotypical portrait of a grandmother.

Next was Carlota's younger brother Carlino, or Carl as he is more commonly known. He had black hair that was styled to try and resemble a mohawk, but it wasn't an actual mohawk. Then again, Lincoln knew that Carl's family wouldn't let him get an actual mohawk when Carlota said that Carl was only six, putting him at the same age as a certain pair of ex-sisters Lincoln had. Carl wore a red hooded jacket, a pair of blue pants and a pair of white shoes.

The last of the new faces was Carlitos, the younger brother of Carlota and Carl, and the youngest in the Casagrande family at only two years of age. Unlike the rest of his family, Carlitos had orange-red hair. He wore a white t-shirt, a pair of red shorts, and was currently barefoot. Also, when Lincoln waved at him, Carlitos mimicked the wave perfectly.

"Yeah, mimicking others is something that he does," Carl said to the older white-haired boy while jerking a thumb at his younger brother.

"Anywho, everyone to the table," Rosa said to everyone in the apartment as she pointed a wooden spoon in the direction of the table, "Dinner is not going to eat itself!" The Casagrande family, with their guest of the evening, all made their way to the table to eat one of the finest dinners that Lincoln ever had the pleasure to try.

…

After a very delicious and filling dinner (right after he finished his first helping, Lincoln was served another helping by Rosa before he could even say anything), Lincoln was led to one of the bedrooms by Carlota. Opening the door to the room, Carlota led Lincoln inside. There was no decoration to speak of anywhere in the room, and the bed, dresser and desk that were in the room all looked like they were recently bought from a furniture store. "This is C…" Carlota began, but she caught herself, took a steadying breath, then continued, "This is the guest room. You should be able to stay here for the night."

"…This was your younger brother Carlos's room, wasn't it?" Lincoln asked, remembering what he had learned from Carlota about her mother and younger brother; given the way that Carlota had just caught and corrected herself in front of him, the white-haired boy was able to put two and two together.

"…Yes," Carlota replied in a resigned tone, "After what…after what happened, my family decided to turn this room into a guest room. We even got new furniture for it and everything, getting rid of everything Carlos had."

"You…got rid of everything your younger brother had?" Lincoln asked, shooting the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl a mildly skeptical look.

"We also got rid of most of the stuff my mother had," Carlota explained, "My family…my family just couldn't bear to keep any of it around. It kept reminding us of what we lost."

"I'm sorry," Lincoln said in an apologetic tone, "I didn't mean to bring up sad memories."

"No, no, you just came to the correct conclusion on your own," Carlota replied, "There's no need to apologize." As she made her way to the door, Carlota said, "Anywho, if you need anything, my room is just down the hall. You can find it by looking for the door with the sign that has my name on it."

Nodding once in thanks, Lincoln replied, "Thank you." Carlota smiled, then closed the door behind her, leaving Lincoln alone in the guest room.

…

Lincoln was staring up at the ceiling as he laid in bed; how did everything come to this? He went from being kicked out of his ex-family's home, to being a runaway, to living in an abandoned building that was eventually condemned by the city, to staying in a guest room in the home of the family that had always shown him kindness ever since he first came to the city. The white-haired boy had no idea what to think.

Turning onto his left side so that he was facing the wall, Lincoln felt that he didn't deserve the kindness that the Casagrandes were showing him. After all, it was _his_ fault that they lost a mother and a brother, a wife and a son, a daughter-in-law and a grandson. Hell, the guest room that the boy without a family was staying in used to belong to the son that died due the mistake that he (Lincoln) made!

As he drifted off into an uneasy sleep, Lincoln wished that there was something he could do to make up for the atrocity that his lack of foresight led to.

* * *

The following day, Lincoln ended up going with Carlota and Carl to City Hall; apparently, Carl's school was taking a field trip to City Hall, and since Carlota had the day off from school, she was able to fill in as a chaperone. Lincoln was brought along because he would have otherwise been left home alone (Rosa would have been able to watch him, but she took Carlitos with her to do some shopping, and she was going to be gone for quite a while).

As Lincoln, Carlota and Carl stood with a fair group of other kids and a few adult chaperones, they heard a young female voice call out in a friendly and somewhat excited tone, "Hey, Carl!" Lincoln and the two Casagrande siblings turned to face a six-year-old girl who came walking up to them. She was fair-skinned and had straight, long yellow-blonde hair that seemed to reach at least halfway down her legs. She wore a teal sleeveless dress that ended about around her knees, a pair of green-stripped leggings, and pink boots that reach halfway up her shins. The girl also had a small kitty face-shaped bag on her right side (the bag's single strap went over the girl's left shoulder), and for some reason a toy light-up wand was sticking out of the bag. Oh, and the girl also wore a reddish-orange cat ear headband.

"Oh, hey Sky," Carl greeted in a friendly tone, "What's up?"

"Hey Carl, is this a friend of yours?" Lincoln asked as he pointed to the girl.

"Oh, I guess I should make the introductions," Carl remarked. Turning to face Lincoln and Carlota properly, Carl said as he gestured to the girl, "This is Sky Evergreen. She's a relatively new girl at my school, and I was volunteered to show her around. You know, to help her learn more about the school's layout, figure out where everything is, and overall just to help her out if she needs it."

"Carl and I are in the same grade," Sky said in an oddly cheerful tone. Throwing her arms around Carl from the side and dragging him into a hug, Sky added in a something of a singsong voice, "We're same grade buddies!" Both Lincoln and Carlota got a bit of amusement out of how cute it was that Carl's little friend was so close to him. Carlota got even more of a laugh out of it when she saw the embarrassed look on Carl's face when she said that he and Sky were the cutest little couple she ever saw.

* * *

As the field trip had to stop somewhere in City Hall to take a lunch break, Lincoln sat with Carlota, Carl and Sky, eating the food that Carlota had brought. As the four of them ate their lunch, the white-haired boy overheard a pair of adult chaperones talking to each other. "Man, can you really believe what those four cops are going through?" the first adult of the pair, a Hispanic woman, said to her fellow, a Hispanic man.

"Yeah, it sucks," the Hispanic man replied, "They arrest a few pissy teenagers who were vandalizing someone's car, and now all of the white and black people in the city are crying foul over it, claiming that the cops used way too much force!" With a hint of disgust in his tone, the Hispanic man went on, "This is all because the white and black people in this city all hate the Hispanic community, the four cops who arrested the teenagers were all Hispanic, and those pissy little teens that were arrested are two white kids and a black kid." After taking a swig from his can of soda, the Hispanic man continued, "This is all a recipe for disaster just waiting to happen, if you ask me."

As the two adults continued their conversation, Lincoln returned his focus to the group that he was in. The white-haired boy grew very concerned with what he had just heard; four cops, all of them Hispanic, arrested three teenagers, two Caucasian and one African American, and the cops were being accused of being overly rough with said teenagers. And this comes at a time in the city when the racial groups the teenagers respectively belong to were in a very foul mood with the group that the four cops all belong to.

The man was right, Lincoln realized; this was a recipe for disaster just waiting to happen.

…

Lincoln had to excuse himself to go find a restroom; since lunch would still be going on for a good half hour, Lincoln had plenty of time to go use the restroom and come back. After he had used the bathroom, the white-haired boy walked through a hallway on his way back to where everyone in the field trip was having lunch. As he made his way through a hallway, Lincoln noticed that the laces on his left shoe was untied, so he knelt down to tie his shoe.

Where Lincoln knelt down was along the wall close to a door that was open slightly ajar. As he tied his shoelace, Lincoln overheard the two people inside talking. "The fieldtrip from the local elementary school could be a great chance to strengthen Public Relations," one of the voices, an adult male that sounds to be mid to late twenties, spoke up, "I'm positive that the voters will think positively of you when you make your reelection bid in the upcoming mayoral elections if there's a news piece of you showing the children around City Hall, sir."

"Ah yes, the upcoming mayoral elections," replied a second voice, a man older than the first. This second man sounded at least middle-aged. After a cough to clear his throat, the second man said, "Tell me, how do you think we can use the news appearances of that bastard Broken Mirror in relation to my reelection bid?" Upon hearing what the second voice, which apparently belonged to the city's current mayor, said to the first voice, Lincoln paused in his shoelace tying; the mayor has an interest in his (Lincoln's) actions as Broken Mirror?

…That would make sense, Lincoln realized, given that this is the mayor of the city who's talking. He's probably concerned with the safety of the city's citizens, as well as the fact that there is technically a violent vigilante running about his city, taking the law into his own hands. The white-haired boy was surprised with himself for not having taken something like this into consideration sooner. A bit of a gross oversight on his part.

"The overall opinion of the city's population is still split evenly on the matter of Broken Mirror, sir," replied the first voice, apparently that of an aide who worked in City Hall, "The families of the victims of the violent youth gang still view Broken Mirror as something of a hero because of his or her actions in taking out said gang. And now the city's Hispanic community sees Broken Mirror in a similar light due to his or her actions in avenging the victims of violent hate crimes carried out against members of their community."

Lincoln was surprised to hear that a number of people in the city, roughly half of the city's population to be exact, seemed to hold Broken Mirror's actions, _his_ actions, in such high regard. Was he really making that much of a difference in people's lives? Maybe his sticking around in the city was a good thing after a-

"Who the hell cares about what those fucking Mexicans think?" the mayor's voice said to the aide's voice in response, interrupting Lincoln's thoughts and surprising the white-haired boy with what he heard. Did…did the city's mayor really just say what Lincoln thought he heard him say just now?

"Has there been any progress in investigating the Broken Mirror case?" the mayor's voice asked, a hint of vengeful desire in his tone, "Specifically figuring out who the hell he is?"

"No such progress has been made so far, I'm afraid," the aide's voice replied, "Remember, we can't afford to be too pushy. After all, if we push too much, it will be revealed that your late son was a member of the violent youth gang and one of Broken Mirror's victims, and that the local police were kept from taking action against the violent youth gang because of your orders. If that gets revealed, you can essentially kiss your reelection bid good-bye."

Lincoln's eyes widened out of shock upon hearing what the aide said; _that_ ' _s_ why the violent youth gang got away with as much as they did?! The police were actually kept from investigating them on the mayor's orders, because the mayor's son was one of the members of the gang, and that the mayor was worried about his reelection bid if info like that got out?! _That_ ' _s_ why many innocent citizens throughout the city had their property vandalized, got mugged, and even _lost a few loved ones_?!

"And furthermore," the aide's voice went on, "There's also a fair chance that you and your group's anti-Hispanic community plans will surface if an investigation like that is launched. If word gets out that your group has secretly been trying to turn the rest of the city against the Hispanic community over the past year, things will look even worse for you than they would if word of your son having been a part of that gang ended up getting out. I would hate to imagine what would happen if it's discovered that one of your other aides secretly incited the riot at the Hispanic Heritage month festival a few months back on your orders."

… _ **WHAT**_?!

"Which is why it's a good thing that no one will ever find out about any of that," the mayor's voice replied in a confident tone that sounded a little relaxed. With a chuckle, the mayor's voice continued, "By the way, how's my plans concerning the upcoming trial of those four police officers coming along?"

"Higgins checked to make sure that the judge, bailiff, everyone in the jury, and even the court clerk is all Hispanic," the aide's voice replied in something of an affirmative tone, "There should be no doubt that the trial will end as favorably for the police officers as possible. Higgins even said that at least half of the jury will be composed of people who have been noted to have been personally scarred by the city's recent string of hate crimes."

"Excellent," the mayor's voice said, "No doubt this will be the final push that's needed to incite what's needed to get rid of those damn dirty Mexicans infesting this city. We'll be moving on up after the city's cleaned, mark my words!" The mayor and his aide shared a bit of a laugh as their conversation wrapped up, but before the two of them started to laugh, the white-haired boy who was secretly listening in on their conversation was already gone, having gotten up and quickly making his way back to where the field trip was still having lunch.

* * *

It was close to getting late at night in the city. The mayor, a portly balding Caucasian man with a moustache, was in his office at his estate. His wife was doing some sort of social thing with other influential women in the city and would be gone all night, and his son, his only child, was killed months back by that bastard Broken Mirror. As a result, this left the mayor home alone, aside from a few members of the help and his aide Higgins, who was over at the estate that night to help him with figuring out the final details of their group's plan to take care of the 'problem' that the city was currently facing.

The mayor sat at his desk in his office at the estate, the double-doors leading into the office closed. Sitting on the surface of the desk in front of the mayor was a folder that contained files on the mayor's plan for the city's 'problem', plus ideas for handling that Broken Mirror bastard. The mayor even wrote a side note about needing to come up with an idea on how to keep the police from spilling how he kept them from investigating the gang because he didn't want it to get out how his son was a member of said gang, along with figuring out how to make Broken Mirror pay dearly for killing his son, a perfectly innocent boy who never did anything wrong.

Sighing in a resigned tone that carried a hint of heartbreak, the mayor hoped that, once the plan to fix the city's 'problem' is carried out, and when Broken Mirror is finally caught and brought to justice, things will finally start to look a hell of a lot better in the city. And once all of that business is taken care of, the mayor can focus more on his reelection bid. That new aide working at City Hall had a good point about making an appearance to the field trip group from the city's local elementary school. The little kids all had a blast, and with the little piece in the news earlier about how he showed the kids around for a bit, the mayor had no doubt that-

*PEH-CHOO*

The mayor fell over, face first, onto his desk. The back of his head had been shot. As blood oozed out of the late mayor's head wound, his assassin stepped out from where he hid, behind the large curtains of the large window behind the mayor's desk. Even though his gun was equipped with a silencer, thus significantly lowering the volume of the noise the gunshot made, Lincoln, in the guise of Broken Mirror, had to act quickly.

The white-haired boy quickly yet quietly made his way over to where the late mayor's body sat at the desk in order to confirm that he had killed the mayor, the man whose vanity led to the violent youth gang running roughshod over the city without check, the man whose blatant racism was the reason why the city's Hispanic community was facing violent hostility from most everyone else.

The man who is the reason why two of the Casagrandes were killed.

Seeing the bullet wound in the back of the mayor's head, Lincoln nodded to himself once in confirmation. The masked vigilante was about to turn and make his leave; he wasn't planning to leave his calling card on this one, lest the name of Broken Mirror be tainted with assassinating a political leader, albeit a low-leveled one. However, before he left, Lincoln saw the folder that was laying under the dead mayor's head. The white-haired boy saw half of a label on the folder that denoted the files inside as top secret.

His curiosity itching, Lincoln gently pulled the folder out from under the mayor, glad that he was wearing gloves so that he wouldn't leave fingerprints on anything. After getting the folder out, Lincoln saw what the label said; TOP SECRET, MAYOR HUFFINGTON'S EYES ONLY. Figuring that this file might be an interesting read, Lincoln decided to take it, putting it into the backpack he carried.

Once the file was secured in his bag, Lincoln climbed out of the window of the late mayor's at-home office, which was the same route he took to even enter the estate in the first place. Under the cover and shadows of night, the masked vigilante made his escape into the city without ever being seen, thankful for the surprising lack of security around the mayoral estate, thankful that he was able to stop any further racist scheming.

Thankful that he was truly able to avenge the loss that the Casagrandes suffered.

…

"Mr. Huffington?" Higgins, an adult Caucasian man in his early thirties working for the office of the mayor as an aide to Mayor Huffington, called out as he knocked gently on the double-doors that led to the mayor's at-home office. Higgins was roughly as tall as Carlos Sr., and roughly the same weight, too. He had straight, brushed-back yellow-blonde hair, and wore a suit that many would normally see worn by men working in most any political field.

"…Mr. Huffington?" Higgins called out as he gently opened one of the doors leading into the office, "We still need to WHAT THE FUCK?!" The early thirties mayoral aide cried out in shocked exclamation upon seeing the mayor laying dead at his desk, blood dribbling out of the wound on the back of his head. "SOMEONE CALL THE POLICE!" Higgins yelled loud enough to be heard by a few of the members of the help working at the mayoral estate, "THE MAYOR'S JUST BEEN KILLED!"

As various members of the help began to panic, Higgins went into the room, not daring to touch anything lest he get prints on something. As he looked around, he saw that Broken Mirror's calling card wasn't anywhere in the room; that calling card was always left at the scene of the crime where that vigilante killed someone, so that fact that a copy of that most infamous calling card wasn't anywhere in the room told Higgins that this wasn't the doing of Broken Mirror.

Something else also worried Higgins; Mayor Huffington's file detailing his plans for the city's 'problem', along with his connection to the police's lack of action against the violent youth gang, was nowhere to be seen. If that file somehow got out and fell under public examination, then the remaining members of the group were in for a world of trouble. Higgins tried to calm himself; Mayor Huffington's file must be in one of the file cabinets here in the office. Yeah, that had to be it. Their group would still be ale to carry out their plans.

…But given that Mayor Huffington, the head of their group's efforts in trying to clear out the city's 'problem' and a man who Higgins saw as something of a father figure, was sitting at his desk dead from a gunshot wound to the back of his head, the aide was at a loss on what to do. It was a very terrible thing that Mayor Huffington wasn't going to get to live to see his vision for the betterment of the city come to fruition.

…But Higgins was already forming an idea. An idea on how to turn this tragedy into an advantage. An advantage that would ultimately lead to the late Mayor Huffington's vision for this city. Higgins silently swore to himself that he would not only avenge the mayor, but that he'd carry out the mayor's work in his place to the best of his abilities.

He was going to make the mayor proud.

END, BROKEN MIRROR: NEW WAR CHAPTER SEVEN

Author's notes:

And with that, the head has been cut off, leaving the body to flail about until it eventually expires. However, there are some cases, such as with cockroaches, where the body will live on for a while after losing its head, continuing to be an ongoing problem. The next chapter will show the result of what happens when the head is cut off.

...As a side note, the next chapter will also spoil something that will occur near the end of 'Ten Reasons'. Not wanting to risk such a massive spoiler like that, it may be a while before I next update this story, at least until I get 'Ten Reasons' caught up enough. I apologize if having to put this story on hold upsets any of you.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Broken Mirror: New War

Chapter eight: Total Chaos

Lincoln, a white-haired boy who ran away from his old life in Royal Woods because his family decried him as bad luck, was making his way back to his current place of residence in the city that he ran away to. It was getting late, but Lincoln had some…business…to take care of before he could turn in for the night. Still, his business was done for the night, and now, Lincoln felt like he can sleep a hell of a lot easier.

The Casagrandes, the family that was currently letting Lincoln stay with them, were worried about Lincoln being out so late, but he told them that he needed to get out and walk around, feeling like he had a need to roam about from time to time. The Casagrandes understood the white-haired boy's need to wander about, and decided that Lincoln just needed a lot of time outside to clear his head.

They also understood that Lincoln still felt guilty about his role in the riot that rocked the Hispanic Heritage Month festival. Carlota informed the rest of her family about what Lincoln had told her; how he recognized two of the four killers that weren't arrested at the riot as two men that he gave directions to, and how they told him that they wanted to get to the festival so that they can call some friends over, and that he gave them directions to the festival since he went past it on his way to work an odd job.

Because of what Lincoln did that day, the riot occurred, resulting in over two dozen people, with one of those people being Carlos Sr., getting seriously hurt, and nine people, two of which were Carlos Sr.'s wife Frida and their son Carlos Jr., getting killed. Even so, none of the Casagrandes held anything against the white-haired boy; Lincoln had no way of knowing what those two men were going to do once they got to the festival, so how could they hold him up to anything? The Casagrandes even formed a group hug around Lincoln, reassuring him that they bore him no ill will at all.

…All of that was all the more reason why Lincoln felt a hell of a lot better as he sat in the Casagrande's living room while watching TV with Carl, Carlitos and Carlota after he got back from taking care of the…business…that he had in town. "Hey, boys," Carlota said to her younger brothers and Lincoln as the show that they were all watching went to commercial, "Grandma Rosa said that her friend Mrs. Ace is hosting some family of hers that came from Royal Woods to help her with something."

"Really?" Carl asked as he and the other boys turned to face Carlota, "More of the Ace family is stopping by for a while?"

Nodding once in the affirmative, Carlota said, "From what I heard, Mrs. Ace is hosting her niece, three grandnieces and three grandnephews. The whole lot came by earlier today."

"Why did they come by?" Carl asked.

"Grandma Rosa told me that Mrs. Ace's husband passed away," Carlota explained, a hint of somberness seeping into her tone, "And that she needs help managing her late husband's final affairs. That's why the Aces living in Royal Woods came here."

"Wow, I can't believe they lost someone like that," Lincoln said in a concerned, sympathetic tone, "Is there anything we can do to help?"

"Grandma Rosa is already doing something with Mrs. Ace to help her," Carlota said to the younger boys, "But then again, given that she and Mrs. Ace are good friends, it doesn't surprise me that-" Carlota was cut off when the door to the apartment was opened, and walking in was Rosa, who turned to close the door behind her.

"Oh, welcome back, ma'am," Lincoln greeted in a friendly tone after Rosa was done closing the door, "How are things going?"

"Oh, I just stopped off to see how my friend Sejuani is doing after she lost her husband," Rosa replied, "The poor dear. She's clearly upset with what happened. According to her high school-aged grandnephew, Sejuani had already consumed at least two mugs of mead before I arrived, and by the time I left, she finished off at least a third."

"What's mead, Grandma?" Carl asked, a confused look on his face.

"Mead is an alcoholic drink that's made with fermented honey as a primary ingredient," Carlota explained to her younger brother, "It usually spoken of in reference to Vikings."

After giving his older sister a nod of acknowledgement, Carl turned to face his grandmother and asked, "Will your friend be okay, Grandma?"

"It will take her a while, but I have no doubt that Sejuani will recover," Rosa replied, "It helps that she has her niece, three grandnieces and three grandnephews helping her with taking care of various thing related to the final affairs of the deceased, and overall just keeping her company."

"That's good to hear," Lincoln remarked, "Mrs. Ace seems like a very nice person from the one time I met her with Carlota, so I'd hate for her to be miserable for too long."

"Well aren't you a sweet young man," Rosa remarked. Making her way over to the kitchen, Rosa continued, "Anywho, I have to make sure I have everything I'll need for all of the cooking and baking I have planned for tomorrow lined up. Not only do I have to cook for this family, but I'm planning on bringing some muffins and other various baked goodies like that over to Sejuani and her family tomorrow!"

"Well if they're as good as the rest of your cooking, then I have no doubt that Mrs. Ace and her family will be wanting a whole lot of it," Lincoln said.

"Aww, come here," Rosa said as she gestured for Lincoln to come over. When the white-haired boy got close enough, Rosa threw her arms around Lincoln and more or less dragged him into smothering and mildly crushing, but ultimately entirely appreciative, hug. Carlota more or less gushed at the adorableness of the scene of her grandmother hugging Lincoln, Carl snickered a little, and Carlitos waddled over and copied his grandmother by hugging Lincoln as well.

Moments like this are why Lincoln was glad he took care of his earlier 'business'.

* * *

The following day, Lincoln was at the Casagrande apartment; Rosa was out taking care of some shopping (upon discovering that she didn't have any vanilla extract or nutmeg, Rosa proclaimed that she was embarrassed for not having every ingredient she needed fully stocked in the kitchen and proceeded to run out to go buy what she needed), Carlota was out doing something with her friends, and Carlos Sr. was at the college he taught at helping out at the college's club fair that was going on today, and Hector was down in the bodega store, running his business as usual.

This left Lincoln in the Casagrande apartment to look after Carl and Carlitos. Lincoln wasn't too sure about being left to look after two kids, given that he's a kid himself; Lincoln often felt this way back when there were times he had to look after any of his younger ex-sisters. But the older members of the Casagrande family had no doubt in Lincoln's ability to look after Carl and Carlitos, and if something went really bad, Lincoln could always head down to the bodega to get Hector to help out. It never ceased to amaze the white-haired boy how the Casagrandes could trust him as much as they do.

Carl was sitting on the sofa, absent-mindedly channel-surfing while watching the TV, while Lincoln was keeping Carlitos occupied by playing with the two-year-old boy. To Lincoln's surprise, the Hispanic toddler was very good at communicating in Sign Language. It took Lincoln a bit of trial and error, but he was eventually able to figure out a few of the things that Carlitos was trying to say to him.

Lincoln was having a little fun entertaining the Hispanic two-year-old when, from over on the sofa, Carl called out, "Hey dude! Grab Carlitos and come over here! You aren't going to believe what's on the news!" Curious, Lincoln picked up Carlitos, prompting Carlitos to giggle in an amused manner, and walk over to where Carl was sitting on the sofa. When his younger brother and Lincoln reached him, Carl said while pointing to the TV, "Seriously! Watch!"

Wondering what had gotten the six-year-old boy's attention so much, Lincoln sat Carlitos on the sofa, then took the seat that was between the two young Casagrande boys. After sitting down, Lincoln proceeded to watch the news, but what he saw caught his attention, not to mention set a degree of alarm into his heart.

"Late last night," the news anchor began as he was sitting at his desk in the news studio, "Mayor Henry Huffington was shot and killed at his estate. According to Brent Higgins, one of Henry Huffington's mayoral aides, he saw infamous vigilante Broken Mirror assassinate the late mayor then immediately escape the estate grounds. We now go live to an interview with Brent outside of Huffington's estate." As the news switched to a live interview with the aide of the late mayor, Lincoln's eyes widened a bit out of worry. Lincoln's 'work' from the previous night, before he returned to the Casagrande apartment, was to kill the city's mayor, as Lincoln had discovered that the late mayor was not only responsible for the city police's lack of action against the violent youth gang from a while ago, but that the mayor and a few of his buddies were also responsible for trying to turn everyone in the city against the city's Hispanic population.

It was the late mayor's fault that the families of the violent youth gang's victims suffered as much as they did. It was the late mayor's fault that there had been as many blatant and violent acts of racism in the city as there had been. It was the late mayor's fault that two of the Casagrandes were killed in a riot that rocked a festival a few months back. And all of that happened because the late mayor was a bigoted racist who only cared about preserving and strengthening his image in the public eye.

The late mayor, in a certain sort of way, is the reason why Lincoln ended up becoming Broken Mirror in the first place.

And now, because of his overwhelming desire to eliminate the man that was the reason why he became a violent vigilante in the first place, Lincoln had apparently allowed his caution to slip, which permitted the mayoral aide that was being interviewed to catch him in the act and as he made his escape into the night.

On the TV, Brent Higgins said, "Yes, yes I did see Broken Mirror assassinate Mayor Huffington. I was scared that he would have killed me too, but I'm guessing me crying out in alarm upon seeing him kill the mayor must have startled him into fleeing." After Higgins said that, Lincoln calmed down significantly, although that calming down was mixed with a generous helping of confusion; he never heard anyone cry out after he had killed the mayor. In fact, he had enough time to steal a folder that was on the late mayor's desk before fleeing. Higgins is obviously lying about having caught Lincoln in the act, but why?

"Can you describe what Broken Mirror looked like?" the interviewer asked. What Higgins said next not only confirmed to Lincoln that the mayoral aide was lying, but it also set a degree of worry into the white-haired boy's heart.

"He was an adult Hispanic man that looked to be in his mid to late twenties," Higgins said, "He was about my height, but a bit more muscular, although not excessively so. Long black hair in a men's ponytail, and he wore a mask over the upper half of his face to cover his eyes, like he was some sort of superhero from comic books. In addition to his usual calling card, Broken Mirror also stuck a miniature Mexican flag on a little stick into the bullet wound that he inflicted on the mayor." The news then cut back to the news anchor back at the news studio.

"Broken Mirror's assassination of Mayor Huffington comes just after an announcement was made from the city court concerning the trial where four police officers were on trial for supposed police brutality in apprehending three teenagers," the news anchor said, "The four police officers were all found not guilty by a twelve to zero vote from the jury. News of this judgment already has a lot of the city's population in an uproar, with many calling for a retrial of the four officers in question. We'll bring you more as this develops."

As the news went on to some story about sports, Lincoln leaned back in his seat as he thought about everything that was on the news just now; not only was the mayoral aide who claimed to have seen Lincoln in action clearly lying, but his lie implicated that someone from the city's Hispanic community was responsible, and in the worst way possible. Not only that, but that trial where four police officers, all of which were Hispanic, ended with them being let off the hook with a twelve to zero vote.

The group of teenagers that the officers were accused of using police brutality against consisted of two Caucasian kids and one African American kid. The two groups that are, as a whole, acting violently hostile towards the city's Hispanic community.

This was bad. Really, _really_ bad.

Getting up from the sofa, Lincoln went over to the guest room that he was currently using in the Casagrande's apartment, gathered some stuff that he figured that he was going to be needing into a backpack, then came back out into the living room. "Hey, Carl," Lincoln began, "I'm going to be heading down to the bodega store to ask your grandfather something. Can you and your brother sit tight for a few minutes?"

"I don't see why not," Carl replied as he gave Lincoln a thumbs-up, a gesture that was immediately copied by Carlitos.

"Thanks," Lincoln replied, "I also want you to lock the door behind me, just to be safe." Carl nodded in agreement and understanding, and after Lincoln walked out of the apartment, he could hear the faint sound of a lock clicking into place. " _Good_ , _that should help keep the boys safe_ ," Lincoln thought as he made his way over to the stairwell in the apartment building, quickly made his way down the stairwell, and out the door leading into the apartment building. He quickly ducked into an alleyway, found a place that he knew wouldn't be seen by anyone, and quickly changed into a certain familiar outfit.

Broken Mirror was back on the streets.

* * *

Amy Ace was making her way back to her Grandaunt Sejuani's place as quickly as possible. Amy was a girl who was fifteen years of age; she was as tall as a certain music-loving fifteen-year-old living in Royal Woods, but Amy looked totally different. She had fair skin that seemed to have a hint of paleness to it, and her black hair covered one of her eyes, leaving the other eye, a vibrant shade of burgundy, exposed; the rest of Amy's hair was bound in a single braided ponytail that fell down over her back.

Amy wore a black sleeveless girl's blouse, a black skirt that reached her knees, black and white stripped arm warmers that reached halfway up her arms, black and white stripped stockings, and a pair of black shoes. Amy carried with her a staff, which she was using as a walking stick, that upon further inspection had some intricate detail work that clearly denoted the staff as being of Native American make. The fifteen-year-old Ace girl was also carrying a small bag of groceries, which were swinging around as Amy ran with all due haste back to the safety of her grandaunt's apartment building.

Amy had good reason for her running; just moments ago, she was confronted by a man who asked her if she was Mexican. After Amy replied in the negative and after the man said flat out that he would have killed her if she was, Amy swiftly defeated the man in five seconds flat, and stomped down hard on his hidden treasure at least twice while he was laying prone, ensuring that he would be stunned long enough for her to gather her things and make her escape.

As she ran for safety, Amy saw other signs of violence all over the place. Stores were being vandalized and looted, angry rioters were attacking other people, and Amy swore that she even saw a few people get killed in the violence. This greatly worried Amy; aside from herself, Amy knew that her older siblings, the seventeen-year-old twins Allison and Aggro, were also out and about in the city. The three oldest Ace kids were taking care of some business in town related to their late granduncle's passing while their grandaunt, mother and three of their younger siblings were all back at the apartment.

Amy would hate for Allison or Aggro, or any of her siblings for that matter, to get seriously hurt. Amy's family had already suffered enough losses within the past five years or so, and the fifteen-year-old Ace girl did not want anyone else in the Ace clan to perish. Amy silently prayed that her older siblings, both capable of fending for themselves if thrusted into violence, would be able to get themselves out of this mess and back to the safety of their grandaunt's apartment.

Although Amy did suspect that Allison might actually have a bit of fun engaging in the violence.

* * *

Lincoln, in the guise of Broken Mirror, made his way through alleyway after alleyway, sticking to the shadows and sniping a couple of violent rioters in the head as he tried to asses the situation. From what the white-haired boy could tell, there was violence all over the city as a result of the announcement about the court case's verdict, although the mayoral aide's lie on the news also helped to add fuel to the fire that spurred on countless hate crimes that Lincoln was seeing as he tried to help as many innocent people as he could manage.

While he made his way through the alleyways of the city, Lincoln heard Carlota's familiar voice cry out in a panic. Instantly picking up on where Carlota's cry came from Lincoln quickly made his way over, and when he did, he saw two men, one white and one black, corner Carlota in the alleyway. The white guy was even holding a butterfly knife, instantly alarming the white-haired boy who stumbled upon the scene.

"You damn dirty wetbacks have fucked things up for everyone else in this city," the black guy snarled angrily and hatefully at the cowering seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl, "And now we're going to fuck you up in return!"

Acting quickly, Lincoln took out his gun, equipped with a silencer, and took aim at the white guy armed with the knife. When he did, Lincoln saw a boy who looked to be roughly the same age as Carlota rush into the alleyway, armed with what appeared to be a Japanese sword made of wood.

This guy had fair skin, and long pale yellow-blonde hair that was bound in a single men's ponytail that fell down over his back, save for the bangs which framed his face. He wore a long-sleeved light gray shirt under a seafoam green men's tank top, a pair of light gray cargo pants held up with a belt, a pair of men's sandals, and for some reason, some elaborate sleeveless long coat the same shade of green as his tank top. Around the boy's neck rested a pair of white studio headphones, with black circles on the outside of the parts that normally go over the ears, and thin cords came out from the ear pieces, eventually becoming a single cord that disappeared into the guy's front right pocket. Lincoln also got a look at the guy's face; the guy's eyes clearly denoted some degree of Asian heritage.

The guy with the wooden sword raised his weapon up high and brought it down hard on the shoulder of the man armed with the butterfly knife, prompting the violent rioter to drop his weapon. Without missing a beat, the guy then dealt a swift kick to the other man's side before that man could react, making him stumble back in response. As the two violent rioters were momentarily distracted, the teenager quickly picked up the dropped butterfly knife before turning on the man he kicked in the side.

Right as the teenager used the newly obtained knife to cut the throat of the man he kicked in the side, everyone in that part of the alleyway heard a suppressed gunshot sound out; Carlota and the teenager both turned to see the guy who the teenager got the knife from fall over dead, a bullet wound right in the middle of his forehead. As the man who had his throat cut gurgled his own blood, another gunshot sounded out, hitting him in the head to save him the suffering of choking to death on the warm, rich crimson.

As Carlota and the teenager both looked around in alarm, they saw the disguised vigilante come walking out. "It's you!" Carlota said as soon as she regained her sense of self, getting Broken Mirror's attention.

Pointing to the short, masked assailant with his wooden sword, the teenager said to Carlota, "You actually know this person?"

Nodding a few times in the affirmative, Carlota explained, "A while ago one evening, I was being chased by one of the many men in this city that have turned on the people of my ethnic group for no good reason. That man clearly wanted to do me a lot of extreme harm, if not outright kill me." Pointing to the disguised vigilante, Carlota continued, "Then this one here shot and killed that man, saving me. I didn't actually see him do the deed, but I did see him lay a copy of his calling card on the man who was chasing me, so I know it was him who saved me."

"Calling card?" the teenager repeated in a mildly confused and suspicious tone.

Nodding once again in the affirmative, Carlota said, "Yes, calling card." Pointing at Broken Mirror once again, Carlota said, "This here is Broken Mirror, the vigilante that has been acting here in my home city for the past few months."

"Yeah, I heard about that on the news," the teenager remarked, "My aunt Sejuani told my siblings and I about Broken Mirror's exploits on the news over the last few months. Hell, I even heard a little bit about it on the news back in Royal Woods. He's some vigilante who's taken to avenging the victims of violent crimes." Turning to face Broken Mirror, the teenager continued in a tone that conveyed suspicion, "Since I'm seeing him up close, I can say for certain that Broken Mirror is not a mid-twenties Hispanic man."

The disguised vigilante made a hand gesture conveying that he wanted Carlota and the teenager to wait for a minute; as Carlota and the teenager complied, Broken Mirror took off his backpack, set it down on the ground, opened it, removed the file he took from the late mayor's office at his estate home the previous evening, and handed it over to Carlota. Curious, the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl opened the file and began to read it.

As Carlota read what was contained in the file, she said in a tone of subdued shock while slowly shaking her head, "…Dios Mio…"

"What is it?" the teenager asked. In response, Carlota showed him what the file said. As he read what was contained in the file, his eyes slowly widen out of shock.

"What the hell is this?" the teenager said under his breath, but just loud enough to be heard by Carlota and Broken Mirror. Looking up at Carlota, the teenager said while gesturing to the file, "If all of this is true, then making the contents of this file public knowledge would lead to one hell of an investigation, not to mention making a whole lot of people in this city very upset." Carlota nodded in agreement as she took the file and handed it back to Broken Mirror, who put it back in his bag. "I hope you intend to turn this file over to the proper authorities," the teenager said, getting a thumbs-up and an affirmative nod from the masked vigilante in response.

"Good," the teenager replied, "With information like that brought under the public eye, a lot of injustice will be avenged. It would be terrible if the true culprits behind the recent troubles in this city got away with their crimes scot-free." This drew a nod of agreement out of Broken Mirror, who shot the teenager another thumbs-up.

"Very well," the teenager said. Turning to face Carlota, the teenager continued, "Anyway, I hope you get yourself to safety and quick. I would not want for you or any other innocent people to come to any harm."

"Yeah, I'm making my way straight back home from here," Carlota remarked, "I'm nowhere near stupid enough to stick around outside while there are violent rioters all over the city." The teenager nodded in agreement as he turned around and took his leave. After he was gone, Carlota turned to regard Broken Mirror.

"…Thanks again," Carlota said to the masked vigilante, "For coming in to save me." Broken Mirror nodded once in response before he turned around and fled into further parts of the alleyway. Now that she was on her own, the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl wisely decided to get herself the hell out of there, hoping like hell that the rest of her family was safe. Carlota had already lost her mother and one of her three younger brothers.

She would hate to lose anyone else.

* * *

As Lincoln continued to go about his path, he made his way out to the entrance leading into the maze of alleyways that he had been going through. When he reached that area, the disguised white-haired boy saw to his shock that four men in total beating up a lone man that was laying on the ground.

The reason why this was so shocking was that Lincoln saw that the man that was being ganged up on was Carlos Sr.

Quickly checking his gun, Lincoln saw that the clip was empty, so he quickly took out the empty clip, discarded it, then put in a full clip; it was one of the two remaining clips Lincoln pilfered from the building where he killed the two men that he gave directions to that one time. His weapon now fully loaded, Lincoln took aim and took out one of the four men beating down on Carlos Sr., scoring a headshot.

The three remaining men looked alarmed as their friend fell over onto the ground dead, and before they all turned to see where the shot came from, Lincoln fired off another shot, scoring a second headshot. Acting quickly, the masked white-haired boy quickly fired at the two remaining men, striking one in the gut and the other in the chest. As both men fell over, incapacitated due to their respective wounds, Lincoln quickly ran up to them and delivered fatal head shots to both men. After the four men were all killed, Lincoln quickly turned to see where Carlos Sr. laid on the ground.

To Lincoln's horror, the kind professor was not moving in the slightest. The masked vigilante gently nudged Carlos Sr. in the arm with his right foot, and still nothing. Kneeling down on one knee to take a closer look, Lincoln saw, as tears began to well up, that Carlos Sr.'s eyes, which were half-closed, were glassing over as they seemed to lose the light that indicated life. Lincoln began to tremble as he reached over with a gloved, shaky hand, and gently closed the eyelids of the man who Lincoln saw as a father.

Standing up, Lincoln slowly turned around and retreated back into the alleyway. Despite the fact that the Casagrande family had just lost someone yet again, that Lincoln had just lost someone yet again, the white-haired boy could not afford to stop. There were still countless innocent people out there that were in great danger, and Lincoln did not want any other families to suffer the sting of loss that the Casagrandes are unfortunately going to find out they suffered later.

…

Did Amy really just see what she thought she just saw? A kid in a hooded jacket, wearing the hood up and wearing a bandana over the lower half of his face, came out of the alleyway and shot and killed the four men that were beating down on some innocent man while she herself hid behind a vehicle in the hopes that she wouldn't be caught by the four men? Also, Amy saw as the masked kid knelt down to take a look at the innocent man that was getting beaten.

She saw the kid close the man's eyes. She saw the kid trembling, as if he was devastated by what had happened.

The fifteen-year-old Ace girl had no doubt that her siblings would find such a tale to be a very tall order to believe, but Amy knew what she saw. Deciding not to stick around any longer out of fear of being caught by any more of the violent rioters, Amy quickly made her leave, sticking to behind cover as much as possible.

* * *

Lincoln eventually made his way over to the area where the apartment building/bodega store where the Casagrandes lived was located. In his time between avenging Carlos Sr. and making his way over here, he used up his remaining ammo, killing eight violent rioters outright while wounding four. Lincoln finished off the four that he wounded by slashing their throats with his butterfly knife that he had since he was going after the violent youth gang.

As much as he wanted to continue trying to save as many innocent people as he could from the violent rioters all over the city, Lincoln knew that he couldn't do anything else; he was an eleven-year-old kid, his only way of combating the violent rioters, which were all adults, was out of ammo, and to be quite honest, Lincoln was exhausted. The white-haired boy prayed that Carlota, Carl, Carlitos, Rosa and Hector were all safe.

Quickly ducking into an alleyway, Lincoln found a place where he knew he wouldn't be seen, changed back into a regular outfit that consisted of a pair of pants and a long-sleeved shirt worn under the jersey he got from Carlota a while back, then made his way out and over to the side of the street where the apartment building/bodega store was located. However, when he got close enough, he saw an African American man laying on the sidewalk outside of the store, clearly knocked out.

Alarmed and worried, Lincoln ran into the store hoping like hell the Casagrandes were okay, and what he saw shocked him. Several people laid on the floor in the bodega store, at least four of them clearly dead, while two other people, a young adult African American woman and a fair-skinned girl that looked to be Carlota's age, were fighting each other.

Of course, by the time Lincoln saw the two girls fighting, the battle wasn't going to last very long; the younger girl, armed with a four-iron golf club, struck the woman she was fighting in the head with the golf club, then dealt a foot slam into the woman's stomach, throwing her over onto the floor. The woman, clearly one of the rioters, laid prone as the girl she was fighting walked over to where she laid. Lincoln then saw the girl stomp down on the woman's throat, crushing her windpipe.

"To the pits of Hel with you, violent troll!" the girl exclaimed angrily as the woman coughed for the last breaths or air that she would ever have, "May Loki's daughter torture you until the realms shake with the approaching battle of Ragnarok, and your fetid remains fed to the great serpent Jormungandr!"

Lincoln carefully studied this girl who he just saw crush another person's windpipe; she was fair-skinned, and had yellow-blonde hair that was long enough to bind into twin pigtails that fell down over her back. She wore a dark green t-shirt, a pair of blue jeans, a pair of white sneakers, a red Sherpa had with tassels hanging off of the earflaps, and wrapper around her waist was a brown leather coat. There was also a thin, rectangular leather carrying case over her back, and the girl had a white bandage over the bridge of her nose, although Lincoln got the feeling that the bandage was there purely for aesthetic reasons.

After having defeated her opponent, the teenage girl turned around and saw that Lincoln standing behind her. "What is your business here, little one?" the teenage girl asked, her tone reminding the white-haired boy of Rosa's friend Sejuani for some reason.

"I'm currently staying with the Casagrandes," Lincoln explained, sounding very worried, "I was out when all of this riot business started, and I'm really concerned about them. I just want them to be safe, and I want to get inside where it's safe so I can stay there." After giving Lincoln a look of consideration for a few seconds, the teenage girl took her golf club and, as if she were a warrior returning a sword to a scabbard over her back, slipped the golf club into the carrying case over her back.

"The older gentleman who greeted me when I entered this store to buy a drink that could satisfy my warrior's thirst said to me that the door he went into leads to the inside of the apartment building that this store is a part of," the teenage girl said. Turning around and pointing at a wooden door behind the counter, the teenage girl continued, "The door is locked, but if you knock on it and call out to be let in, I have no doubt that you will be able to get to safety."

"Thanks," Lincoln said as he made his way to the door. Before he could knock on it, however, the teenage girl called out to him.

"Little one," the teenage girl said in a curious tone, "Think fast." Before Lincoln could react, the teenage girl took a picture of his with her smart phone. Slipping the smart phone back into her pants pocket, the teenage girl said, "Alright, let's look into getting you inside the safety of the apartments here, eh?"

Lincoln was confused as to why the teenage girl took a picture of him like that. Still, if she was going to help him get into the safety of the Casagrande family's apartment, then who was he to complain? After knocking on the door in the store that led into the apartment building for a few minutes, Lincoln's hopes were answered when he heard Carlota's voice on the other side of the door. "Hello?" Carlota's voice called out, "Who's out there? If you think you can come in here and hurt my family, then you've got another thing coming!"

"Why would I want to hurt you or anyone else?" Lincoln shouted loud enough so that he'd be heard on the other side of the door. Within two seconds, the door was opened and Carlota came running out to see if Lincoln was okay, although she stopped short when she saw the teenage girl that was standing there.

Seeing the worried look on Carlota's face, the teenage girl said, "Don't worry, I am only here to fend off any dishonorable troll who would dare to consider assaulting the innocent."

"Yeah, she was beating up some of violent person that was wrecking your grandfather's store," Lincoln explained to Carlota.

"…" After regarding the teenage girl for a few seconds, Carlota said, "…I see." To Lincoln, Carlota said briskly with a hint of panicked urgency in her tone, "Get inside. There's no telling what else might happen today if we aren't safe."

"Don't I know that," Lincoln replied, the hint of dryness in his tone going by unnoticed by both of the girls in the store. Lincoln and Carlota then retreated through the doorway that Carlota came through, with Carlota herself closing and locking the door behind her while wishing the teenage girl the best of luck.

* * *

It was getting late, and even though the riot was still going on, the teenage girl who fought at Hector's bodega returned to where she was staying. When she walked in, she was greeted by Amy Ace and the teenage boy who encountered Broken Mirror and Carlota in the alleyway earlier. "What manner of madness had sparked the city-wide riot?" the teenage girl began, "Amy, Aggro, I don't suppose either of you two can shed some light on this?"

"Remember what Aunt Sejuani said to us last night about that trial concerning four Hispanic cops supposedly using police brutality to apprehend a couple of teenagers of other racial groups?" Amy began. Jerking a thumb at the teenage boy, Amy continued, "Aggro here thinks that the riot was sparked because of the ruling in that trial. It doesn't help that the mayor was assassinated last night by that Broken Mirror fellow, who as it turns out is a mid-twenties Hispanic man." Shaking her head in a manner that conveyed disappointment, Amy continued, "Who knows how long this riot will last?"

"Actually, Amy," the teenage boy, revealed to be named Aggro, replied as he turned to face her, "I actually came across something while I was out. What I came across may poke a few holes in what we learned from the news earlier this morning." Aggro then proceeded to tell the two girls about his encounter with Carlota and the masked vigilante kid in the alleyway; he told them how it was the kid who is really Broken Mirror, and that he had a file, which judging from how it looked seemed pretty official and was obtained from the office of the mayor, that contained a lot of information that would overturn months of assumptions, as well as a massive, horrific plan.

"He gave his word that he'd turn the file over to someone who can make it public news," Aggro said as he finished his tale, "I'm assuming the police, who I have no doubt will announce it as soon as possible."

"…That boy," Amy said, "The one who is supposedly Broken Mirror. I saw him earlier."

"You did?" the teenage girl asked.

Turning to face the teenage girl, Amy nodded in the affirmative while saying, "Yes, Allison. I did see that kid." To Aggro and Allison as a whole, Amy said, "I saw him shoot and kill four men who were ganging up on an innocent man that was laying on the ground. The kid even checked to see if the man was still alive after the beating." With a somber look on her face, the fifteen-year-old Ace girl continued, "Judging by how I saw the kid tremble as he closed the man's eyelids, I'm doubting that the innocent man survived."

"A kid?" Allison said in a confused tone, "This city's infamous vigilante is only a kid?"

"It…would appear so," Aggro remarked. Gently shaking his head, Aggro continued, "I'll try to wrap my head around that later. For now, we ought to do a head count to make sure that everyone is here." Allison and Amy both nodded in agreement with their brother and proceeded to check to make sure that all of their family that either lives in the city or came to the city to help out was present and accounted for.

All six of the Ace kids who came to the city, the Ace matriarch Ashe, and her aunt Sejuani were all present in the apartment. This brought considerable relief to the three oldest Ace siblings, Amy especially. Later on, as Amy tried to get six-year-old Anna to calm down since the girl was freaking out, Allison pulled Aggro to the side to talk to him about something.

"What is it, Allison?" Aggro asked.

"This," Allison replied as she pulled out her smart phone and pulled up the album of photos she took with it. Showing the latest photo to her brother, Allison said, "Look familiar to you?"

"…That looks like the boy in the photo that Lori showed us," Aggro remarked, a hint of piqued interest mixed with suspicion in his tone, "The boy that Lori said is her and Leni-chan's missing younger brother." Looking up from the image on the phone to his sister, Aggro said, "Where did you take this?"

"At the Casagrande bodega store," Allison began to explain, "The boy in this photo says that he's currently staying with the Casagrandes." Looking to her brother, Allison asked, "What do you think we should do?"

"Wait until the riot ends," Aggro replied, "Then send that photo to Lori. I don't want to jump to any conclusions here…" Stopping short to let out a sigh, Aggro continued, "…But I think that you may have found their missing brother."

END, BROKEN MIRROR: NEW WAR CHAPTER EIGHT

Author's Notes:

Remember when I said that this story was going to be a lot heavier than the original 'Broken Mirror'? Well, this is one of the reasons why. Anywho, the next chapter will see the post-riot results, as well as a return trip and…more than a few things being said.

Side note, I think this is technically the longest chapter in this story yet. …Neat.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Broken Mirror: New War

Chapter nine: Overdue Return

Four days. The excessive violence that was the city-wide riot lasted for four days, after which time local law enforcement, aided by the military when the violence proved to be far too great to be handled by the local law enforcement on their own, finally managed to quell the last of the violence. In those four days, over three billion dollars' worth of damage had been caused to businesses and various other buildings, over five-thousand people had been hurt (with many of those cases being rather severe), a little over twenty-thousand arrests had been made, and six-hundred and forty-two people were killed.

Out of the six-hundred and forty-two people who were killed, three-hundred and twenty-one were innocent citizens of Hispanic heritage, one-hundred and fifty-five were police officers and various other emergency workers such as firefighters and paramedics, sixty were members of the military, one-hundred and five were rioters, and one was a rather unlucky tourist from France who was visiting the United States for the first time in his life. It was safe to say that this was one of the most violent events in national history.

On the morning following the city-wide riot officially ending, Carlota Casagrande, along with her grandparents Hector and Rosa, plus Carlota's younger brothers Carl and Carlitos and Lincoln, a white-haired boy who was taken in by the Casagrandes, were waiting anxiously for any news on Carlos Sr., the father of Carlota and her younger brothers. …Well, the Casagrandes were waiting for news; Lincoln already knew the unfortunate truth concerning the fate of the kind, albeit a bit absentminded, college professor, and he feared how the remaining Casagrandes will react upon learning what he already knew.

"Carlota, you have got to relax," Carl said as he tried to assure his worried older sister, "Our dad may not look it, but he is one tough customer. He's probably hiding out somewhere with people that are friends with us. Heck, I bet that Grandma Rosa's friend Mrs. Ace has taken him in."

"How can you be so certain?" Carlota replied, clearly looking like she was trying not to lose it, "We already lost mom and CJ to the violence in this city. Who's to say we won't lose dad to the same thing?" The seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl then began to cry softly to herself, prompting an understanding Carl, followed by his and Carlota's younger brother, walking over to their older sister to give her a comforting, reassuring hug.

Lincoln looked on at the display of sibling bond between the three Casagrande siblings, ashamed of the fact that, in some way, he had contributed to their current suffering. If it hadn't been for the fact that the white-haired boy had given directions to those two men that one time a few months back, who knows how things would have turned out for the Casagrande family? For all Lincoln knew, if those men hadn't gotten directions, the attack on that festival might not have happened at a-

Lincoln's thought process was cut off when there was a knock at the front door of the apartment. Sniffling a little bit, Carlota said, "Hold on, boys. I'll go get that." Getting up from where she sat on the sofa with her younger brothers, Carlota walked over to the front door and looked into the eyehole in the door. "Hey Carl, Carlitos, you won't believe this, but Bobby's come to visit us!" Carlota said in a pleasantly surprised tone.

Lincoln's attention was instantly caught by what Carlota said; the white-haired boy knew that Carlota was talking about Bobby Santiago, the cousin of the Casagrande siblings and the boyfriend of Lori Loud, the oldest of Lincoln's ex-sisters. Lincoln wondered why Bobby would be here randomly; did he perhaps come since the riot was now over, and he wanted to check on his family who lived in the city to see if everyone was okay? Lincoln hoped that that was the reason, although that hope was dashed with what Carlota said next.

"He also brought his girlfriend with him," Carlota remarked as she continued to look through the eyehole in the door, "…I also see Ronnie Anne, and for some reason Mrs. Ace's oldest grandniece and oldest grandnephew as well." The seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl moved to open the door, and before Lincoln could even object, the door was open. "Bobby! Ronnie Anne! Bobby's girlfriend! Other people!" Carlota greeted in a friendly tone, "It's so good to-"

"Where is he?" Lori said suddenly in a worried tone, interrupting Carlota in the process, "Where's my little brother?"

"Excuse me?" Carlota repeated in a confused tone.

"Your family is currently looking after this boy, right?" the girl who Carlota identified as Mrs. Ace's oldest grandniece said as she held up a smart phone, showing Carlota what was currently displayed on the screen. Upon seeing what was displayed, the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl was, to say the least, surprised.

"Yeah, we're looking after him," Carlota replied as the confusion in her tone grew, "In fact, he's in the living room right now. Why, what's going-" However, before she could stop it, Carlota was cut off when Lori, with a bit of assistance from Bobby and (to a lesser degree Ronnie Anne) forced their way into the apartment, more or less knocking Carlota to the side. The two teenagers that were the oldest grandniece and grandnephew of Mrs. Ace casually walked in after the rest of the group had forced their way in.

Lori, upon seeing Lincoln standing among Carl and Carlitos, was at a loss for words. She literally couldn't believe it; her younger brother, her _only_ brother, after running away from home and being missing for months on end, had finally been found. To say that the oldest Loud sister was at a loss for words would simply not be doing it justice. As tears welled up in the corners of her eyes, Lori said in a gentle tone as she tried walking over to her brother, "Lincoln, I-"

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Lincoln shouted, making his older ex-sister stop dead in her tracks and rendering her and everyone else silent. Shaking a bit, Lincoln gave Lori a look that could kill as he said, "I was there that day." As everyone looked at him in confusion mixed with a hint of worry, Lincoln continued, "I was there that day where you, Bobby and Carlota had lunch at that outdoor café. I hid behind a corner so none of you would see me, but I heard the entirety of the talk you all had."

"You…you were there?" Lori asked, shocked to hear that her younger brother was so close to her a while ago, yet she wasn't even aware that he was there, "Lincoln, why…why didn't you-"

"Because I was afraid of being dragged back to some place that I knew full well wasn't home," Lincoln replied in a bitter tone, cutting Lori off in the process.

"Lincoln," Ronnie Anne began as she got Lincoln's attention, concern and worry clear in her tone. "What are you talking about?" the Hispanic tomboy asked, "What do you mean your family's place isn't home?"

Turning to face Lori, Lincoln said, "Since I was there listening to your conversation, I heard that you mentioned that you told Bobby what really happened. Is that true, yes or no?"

"Yeah, dude," Bobby replied to Lincoln in a mildly somber tone, "Your sister told me about what she and the rest of your family did. They're all _really_ regretful about the whole thing, and they want to do whatever they can to make it up to you, provided that you ever return home."

"…I'm surprised you didn't dump her," Lincoln remarked, his tone bitter once more.

Gently shaking his head, Bobby said, "I could tell that not only was Lori being really regretful of what she did, but that her feelings on the matter were genuine. Granted, I was still very disappointed in Lori, and I would be lying if I didn't admit to contemplating the idea of breaking up with her out of fear that she and her sisters would do to Ronnie Anne what they did to you, but I felt that she deserved a second chance." Turning to face Lori, Bobby added, "At the very least, you have to take him to Frozen King to treat him when we're all back in Royal Woods."

"That's understandable," Lori replied.

"I will admit that Frozen King does sound nice," Lincoln remarked, "But I think we're getting off subject here. The point is that Bobby knows the truth of what happened, correct?" After Lori and Bobby both replied in the affirmative, Lincoln continued, "Okay then, now answer me this." Pointing to Ronnie Anne, Lincoln asked, "Does she know what really happened?"

"I think that's a no, Lincoln," Ronnie Anne replied in the same worried and concerned tone that she's been using so far, "Seeing as how I have absolutely no idea whatsoever of what you're talking about when you say 'what really happened'."

Turning to face the two teenagers that came along with Lori and the Santiago siblings, Lincoln asked, "What about either of…" Lincoln stopped short as his eyes fell upon the girl of the pair. "…Hey, you're that girl who fought that one woman in Mr. Casagrande's store," Lincoln said as he pointed at the girl, "The one who shouted something about some realm-shaking battle and some great serpent."

"I am Allison Ace, little one," the teenage girl said as she introduced herself. Gesturing to the teenage boy who came with her, Allison continued, "And this is my twin brother Aggro. He, our younger siblings Amy, Andy, Argent, Anna and I came here to the city with our mother to assist our Grandaunt Sejuani with managing various things that resulted from our granduncle being called up to Valhalla by the Allfather. We came the day before the city-wide riot first broke out."

"Alright," Lincoln replied.

"Your sister here is a close friend of mine," Allison continued, "And Aggro is likewise close friends with Bobby. As such, Lori told us of you running away, and even told us what exactly had happened with her and the rest of your clan mistreating you." Gently shaking her head, Allison remarked, "Given how clear and honest her regret seems, it's obvious to me that your family mistreated you because their judgment was clouded by the trickster god Loki." Giving Lincoln a sympathetic look, Allison said, "Your family is beyond guilty over how they had prompted you to run away, little one."

"You ran away, Lincoln?" Ronnie Anne asked, clearly looking shocked, "I thought you were just missing since that's what Bobby told me!"

Giving Ronnie Anne, as well as the rest of the visiting guests, a serious look, Lincoln said, "I think that we ought to clear up a few things here."

* * *

Within the next minute, Lincoln got Ronnie Anne, Carlota, Lori, Allison, Bobby and Aggro all seated at the dining table; Carl and Carlitos were in their respective bedrooms, as Carlota had a feeling that things were going to get too heavy for a six-year-old and a two-year-old to be exposed to. Additionally, Hector and Rosa just at that moment returned, and while Rosa went about making food for all of the guests, Hector, who said that the bodega had to be closed for the time being due to the damage it suffered in the city-wide riot, decided to join in after he was given a brief summery of what was going on.

"Okay, so here's the deal," Lincoln began in a serious tone, "For those who my think otherwise, I'm not actually an orphan living on the streets. I ran away from home due to being mistreated by my supposed family."

"Your family mistreated you, my boy?" Hector replied in a concerned tone, shocked to hear what Lincoln had just said, "How did that happen?"

"It all started when Lynn forced me to go to a softball game she had," Lincoln began to explain, "She said that she wanted me to come since I had never been to any of her games beforehand. When her team lost the game that day, she said that it was my fault since I had never been to one of her games before that one, and she always won, and this first game I came to she lost, so she said that I was bad luck and promptly barred be from coming to any of her other games."

"Wait a minute," Lori interrupted, " _That_ ' _s_ how this whole mess started? It's all Lynn's fault?!"

Nodding once in the affirmative to Lori, Lincoln returned to facing the group as a whole and said, "After that, Lynn started telling the rest of our family that I was bad luck, and they likewise barred me from going to their events as well. To be completely honest, I didn't object at first, and I even helped it along a bit, because I was finally able to get some alone time, which I've been seriously needing to recharge after having gone to so many of the girls' events prior to that softball game Lynn had."

With a troubled sigh, Lincoln continued, "But then things started to go downhill from there. It started out with them going to the movies without me, but then they boarded up my room, keeping me from being able to sleep in the house and thus forcing me into the backyard, they refused to believe me when I said I wasn't really bad luck just because a few good things happened while I wasn't around with them, and to top it all off, I was kicked out of the house." With another sigh, Lincoln finished his tale by saying, "I decided to run away on the spur of the moment about a minute or so after I was kicked out." Holding his arms out at length, Lincoln said, "And thus, here we are today."

The looks on the faces of the various people around the table were varied. Lori looked upset due to being reminded of her mistake, Bobby, Allison and Aggro all looked like they were just told something they already knew, Carlota looked like she was about to cry over how Lincoln had been treated, Ronnie Anne looked like she wanted to kill someone (or a number of someones), and Hector looked a mix of troubled, disappointed and confused.

"Wait a minute, Lincoln," Lori began suddenly, "You're saying that the whole deal of us accusing you of being bad luck started the day that you went to that one softball game that Lynn had, even you were tired from going to a bunch of other things our sisters had, and you just wanted to be by yourself for a bit to rest?" After Lincoln nodded a bit in the affirmative, Lori asked, "If that's the case, then why didn't you just explain things to Lynn and tell her how you were feeling?"

"Like I said, Lynn forced me to go to the game," Lincoln pointed out, "She even threatened me with a baseball bat in order to make me go."

"Lynn did _**WHAT**_?!" Lori exclaimed angrily at the top of her lungs, slamming her hands down on the table and getting up from her seat with such force that everyone else was startled. Even Allison's twin brother Aggro, who seemed to be the embodiment of being unmovable with how calm he seemed for the entirety of the talk so far, went wide-eyed with alarm after the oldest Loud sibling erupted in such a manner.

"…" Giving Lori a dry look, Lincoln replied, "…If you don't believe me, ask Lisa to see her security footage from the day Lynn had that softball game, specifically the footage in the upstairs hallway before Lynn left for her game." Crossing his arms over his chest, Lincoln said, "You'll see what I mean, provided of course Lisa still has that footage."

"Yeah, I'm literally going to ask Lisa to pull that footage up as soon as we get back," Lori replied in a frim tone that carried more than a mild hint of irritation at a certain athletic younger sister of hers.

"…Please don't wreck Lynn too much," Lincoln said, drawing a surprised look out of a lot of the people sitting at the table.

"What are you talking about, Lincoln?!" Ronnie Anne nearly exclaimed, shock clear in the tomboy's tone, "After what that so-called sister of yours did, how can you show Lynn, or any of those girls for that matter, any mercy?"

With another troubled sigh, Lincoln said, "Like I had said earlier, I was there hiding around a corner when Lori, Bobby and Carlota had lunch at that outdoor café. I overheard what Lori said about the troubles Lynn had concerning a boy named Francisco."

"Oh yeah, that little punk," Lori remarked, a hint of bitterness aimed at Francisco in her tone.

"Lori," Lincoln began as he turned to faced the oldest Loud sister, "What you said about Lynn getting her heart broken then sub sequentially being healed by meeting that Swedish boy, and everything else that you said to Bobby and Carlota that day…" After he took a breath to steady himself, Lincoln asked, "Is it true?"

"What…" Lori replied in a troubled tone, "…What all did you hear?" Over the next few minutes, Lincoln proceeded to tell everyone sitting at the table about what he had heard Lori say to Bobby and Carlota during that lunch at the outdoor café.

The white-haired boy briefly went over the deal that involved Lynn, Francisco and Ulfric (Lincoln had to take a brief pause to ask Lori for the name of Lynn's new crush), then proceeded to go over everything else he heard, such as the game night that went south due to the combined efforts of Lynn, Luna and Lana, Lori borrowing Allison's golf club (which Allison herself also confirmed), the tragic incident involving a kindergarten boy that Lisa and her friend Darcy tried to befriend, an incident where Lynn tried to assault her ex-crush Francisco, Lucy being bullied by Rusty and Rusty's eventual expulsion from school for said bullying, Lori discovering and sub sequentially revealing that it was really Lucy who clogged the toilet with the Princess Pony book, and a story about a girl from England who moved from the city to Royal Woods and got Flip into a lot of trouble then sub sequentially becoming friends with Lynn.

Lincoln then went over everything he heard about Leni, her having fallen in love with Aggro, Lynn Sr. acting like a tyrannical paranoid idiot because of how the fusion restaurant business in Royal Woods was going down at the moment, what Lynn Sr. did upon seeing Leni kissing Aggro, the Loud patriarch's sub sequent threat to Aggro and his siblings, the grounding of all ten of the Loud sisters ("Your dad actually grounded your _baby sister_ , Lincoln?" Ronnie Anne asked in a tone that was equal parts shocked, confused and disgusted), the argument between Lynn Sr. and Rita, and Lynn Sr.'s threat to disown any of the Loud girls that he finds out associated with any of the Aces from that point forward. The white-haired boy finished off everything by going over what Leni tried to do as a result of everything, and how, if anything, it at least managed to get Lynn Sr. snapped back to being a sane person again.

"Leni-chan tried to do _what_?!" Aggro said, his stoic façade broken for the second time as he clearly looked worried and upset.

"That's…that's what I heard Lori say," Lincoln remarked to the male Ace twin. Turning to face Lori, Lincoln asked, "That's all I heard you say that day. So, is it true?"

"…" With a somber expression on her face, Lori said, "…Yes, Lincoln. Every last bit of what you said is true."

"I see…" Lincoln remarked, both his tone and expression grim. With a troubled sigh, Lincoln got up from the table. "…I would be lying if I didn't admit to wanting some sort of punishment done to you and the other girls, Lori," Lincoln began, "After going through what I did, I wanted some sort of justice, for the mistreatment I went through to be avenged." With another sigh, Lincoln continued, "But what you girls as a whole went through, all of that mess…" Gently shaking his head, the white-haired boy said, "…That was too much. That was just too much. That was more than I would ever wish upon anyone."

"Lincoln…" Lori replied in a touched yet somber tone, not expecting the little brother she had a hand in horrifically mistreating to ever show her such concern. The oldest Loud girl thought that she had long since ceased to deserve such consideration from Lincoln.

The silence went on for a good minute or so. No one could even think of anything to say. The silence was broken momentarily when Rosa came in and loaded the table with food that she had prepared. But even as people ate, they didn't say anything. It wasn't until the food had all been eaten and Rosa was taking dishes away so she could bring in dishes containing more food that someone spoke up for real. It was Ronnie Anne.

"So…now what, Lincoln?" Ronnie Anne asked, "What are you going to do?"

"…Well isn't it obvious?" the white-haired boy replied, "I'm heading back to Royal Woods."

"You're actually coming back home, dude?" Bobby asked, "Does this mean you're gong to forgive your family?"

"Not all of them," Lincoln replied, drawing looks of concern from some of the others at the table. Seeing all of the looks, the white-haired boy felt that he had some clearing up to do. "At one point, I didn't consider any of them as my family," Lincoln began to explain, "But after hearing what Lori and my other sisters went through while I was gone, I figured that they suffered more than enough, so I'm okay with all of them again, even though I'm still disappointed in some of them. As a side note, I can't really be mad at Lily since she's just a baby. I'm still a little wary of the pets, mostly Charles because of how he growled at me when I was asking to bunk with him in his dog house when I was forced to sleep in the backyard. I've always been okay with both Pop-Pop and Aunt Ruth since neither of them had any hand in the whole bad luck deal. The person that I'm honestly still really upset with is my so-called dad. I haven't really heard all that much concerning my mom other than her tearing into Mr. Loud over what he tried to do with grounding the girls, so I want to wait and see on that."

"I literally can't blame you for giving dad the cold shoulder," Lori remarked. With a look of piqued interest on her face, Lori added, "But I am literally surprised that you're actually just forgiving all of us just like that."

"Like I said, you girls as a whole suffered way more than I wanted you to," Lincoln replied, "And Lily is just a baby, so she's a given." Leaning against a wall, Lincoln looked up to the ceiling and let out a troubled sigh. "…Besides," Lincoln continued in a resigned, tired tone, "After all of the things I've been through, after learning everything that I've learned, I'm…I'm just exhausted. Too exhausted to even bother trying to give the whole family the cold shoulder." Turning to regard Lori, Lincoln said, "At this point, I just want to go home, crawl into bed assuming my room is no longer boarded up, and sleep for a week."

"Your room is literally no longer boarded up, Lincoln," Lori replied. With a look of remembering something crossing her face, Lori said, "Would you all excuse me? I need to call the rest of my family and told them that Allison was right about finding Lincoln."

"Allison told you?" Lincoln asked.

"I sent the picture of you that I took that day, the day the riot started, to Lori earlier this morning," Allison explained, "I decided to wait until after the riot had ended because I had every reason to believe that, if what I had seen was true, that Lori would rush over right away, putting herself in harm's way by sticking herself into the thick of the riot." Lori nodded in agreement with Allison; the female Ace twin was right about how she (Lori) would have rushed over the instant she saw the photo that Allison had taken. Although she was still a little mad at Allison for holding onto that information for a long as she did, Lori had to admit that Allison had a very good reason for doing so.

"Yeah, that makes sense," Lincoln remarked. Turning to face Lori, Lincoln said, "So, I assume that you want to go call the rest of the family and let them know that you'll be bringing me back to Royal Woods?"

"Yes, that," Lori replied as she got up from the table, went over to the front door, and left the apartment, closing the door behind her.

"…Huh, I guess she wants the call to be private," Bobby remarked. Turning to regard Lincoln, Bobby continued, "Glad to see that you'll be coming back to Royal Woods with us, Bro."

"Bobby and I brought Lori with us, so we're her ride back to Royal Woods," Ronnie Anne explained to the white-haired boy. Lincoln was about to say something, but he was cut off when Carl and Carlitos came running out.

"I was flipping through the channels on the TV in my room, and there's this big breaking news story about a lot of guys from the city government getting into a whole lot of trouble!" Carl said, "It's really big stuff!"

Wanting to see what Carl was talking about, Carlota got up, went to the living room TV, and turned it onto the news. As such, everyone saw what was going on. "Seven more arrests had been made in the scandal related to the file from Mayor Huffington's office being anonymously sent to the local police department in a Ziploc bag," the news anchor said, "This comes after the file in question, which links the late mayor to the violent youth gang that had terrorized this city a few months ago, as well as link the late mayor and at least a dozen men connected to him to a plan that implicates them in trying to incite anti-Hispanic dissident among the rest of the citizens of the city. The investigation is expected to go on for quite some time. We will bring you more as this story develops."

After the news went onto something else, Carlota turned the volume down and turned to face everyone else. At that time, Lori returned from taking her private call. "What did I miss?" Lori asked, a curious look on her face after seeing the various looks on everyone else's faces.

"I'll tell you what you missed, young lady," Hector began in a vengeful tone, "That man who ran this city is lucky that he's dead, otherwise I'd go and make him like that myself right now!"

"Wait, what?" Lori said, clearly a little alarmed with what she was hearing.

"Everything is the late mayor's fault!" Hector exclaimed, "The violent youth gang, the attack at the festival a few months back, the city-wide riot that just ended, both my daughter-in-law and one of my grandsons getting killed! All of that happened because of that God forsaken bastard of a man! Ooh, if only I had a shot at him! I'd show him why Albert, Sejuani and I were the reason why enemy soldiers feared our unit during the war!"

"Wait, what?" Lori exclaimed, not believing what she was hearing.

"I can't possibly imagine any way that I could even madder at that corrupt fucking son of a bitch!" the senior Casagrande man exclaimed.

"Whoa, Grandpa," Bobby remarked in a 'take it easy' kind of tone, "Mom would get upset with you if she heard you using swear words in front of Ronnie Anne." At that moment, there was a knock at the front door. Hector went over to answer it, and when he did, he saw two police officers standing there.

"Excuse me but is this the residence of Carlos Casagrande Sr.?" the first police officer asked.

"Yes, it is," Hector replied, "He's my son." Giving the police officers a questioning look, Hector continued, "Why do you ask?"

"He's your son?" the second officer said, "Hoo boy, that will make this next part a whole lot more difficult." With a sigh, the second officer said, "My partner and I are here to inform you that Carlos Casagrande Sr. has been killed."

"…What?" Hector said, his tone one of subdued shock. Everyone else in the apartment heard what the second officer said, and the reactions were varied, although a few of them, such as Rosa, Carlota and Ronnie Anne, started crying.

"An eyewitness confirmed that she saw four rioters beat and stomp your son to death, right before the rioters themselves were shot to death by a kid wearing a hooded jacket with the hood up," the first officer said, "The witness also said that the kid wore a bandana over the lower half of his face."

"I'm sorry about your family's loss, sir," the second officer said in a sympathetic tone, "My partner and I will provide you with information you can use to contact the morgue so you and your family can verify the identity of the deceased."

"Thank you, officer," Hector replied, clearly looking like he was trying to keep a lid on his temper. After the information was handed over, and a few other necessary things, the two police officers took their leave. After they were gone and the door was closed behind them, Hector turned to face everyone else in the apartment.

"…DO I COUNT THREE?!" Hector exclaimed angrily, the fire of his temper at the late mayor clearly refueled.

END, BROKEN MIRROR: NEW WAR CHAPTER NINE

Author's notes:

The next chapter will see Lincoln finally return to Royal Woods. However, there will be quite a lot that's different here as opposed to how things went down when the original 'Broken Mirror' ended, only for that story line to pick back up in 'Restored Image'. Time can only tell how things will turn out.

By the way, during her private call to the Loud family, Lori told them that Lincoln has no idea that his furniture was sold and sub sequentially bought back and told them not to let Lincoln ever find out about that, lest his current apathy be burnt out and replaced with his old hate.

Also, for those who might be upset with Lincoln apparently forgiving his sisters just like that, here's a spoiler to quell any concerns; the sisters are going to try and make things right with their brother anyway.

And they're going to do a proper job of it.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Broken Mirror: New War

Chapter ten: Awkward Adjusting

As the car that Bobby Santiago was driving pulled into a familiar neighborhood in Royal Woods, Michigan, Lincoln Loud, one of the people sitting in the back seat, stared out the window with a more or less apathetic loon on his face. The white-haired boy thought that he would never see this neighborhood ever again, not since he ran away months prior due to the whole 'bad luck' deal where his family ultimately kicked him out of the house. Granted, Lincoln actually did have something to do with it, but it was the rest of the Louds who took it way too far.

Which is part of the reason why Lori, the oldest of the Loud siblings and the person sitting in the front passenger seat of Bobby's car, felt so guilty and remorseful over what had happened.

Lincoln, Bobby, Lori and Ronnie Anne, the last of those four being Bobby's younger sister, were silent for about the first half of the trip from the city back to Royal Woods, but after they stopped for lunch at a taco place, Ronnie Anne decided to break the silence. "…So, Lincoln," Ronnie Anne began in a somewhat unsure tone, "How…how did you even survive on your own for the months you lived in the city?"

"I lived in an abandoned building up until a few days before the city-wide riot started," Lincoln began to explain, "That building was eventually condemned by the city. A few hours after I took the stuff I had in there and left to hopefully find another abandoned building to live, I ran into your cousin, and her family took me in. A few days later, the riot occurred, then after that, you guys showed up."

"W…wow," Bobby said, surprised to hear that the white-haired boy, who he considered as a younger brother, had gone through so much, "What did you do for food, though?"

"I worked various odd jobs, like chores for older people," Lincoln explained, "I still have quite a bit of the money I earned from doing that." After taking a sip from his drink, Lincoln continued, "Given how much I still have, I think it's best not to tell any of my sisters how much I have exactly. Given how money works in our family, I don't think that even everything that I've gone through and everything that's happened will be enough to keep the girls from acting like that one time we all fought tooth and nail over a quarter I found in the sofa."

"Yeah, don't remind me about that," Lori remarked with a hint of bemusement in her tone, "I still can't believe that I acted like that."

With a shrug that was more or less indifferent, Lincoln said, "We all make mistakes, Lori." After Lori nodded in agreement with what her little brother said, the group was silent for another minute or so. The silence was broken by Lincoln who asked, "So, aside from everything that's gone on with me and Lori's family, what else have I missed while I was gone?"

"Did you hear what happened at our school?" Ronnie Anne asked as she turned to face Lincoln, getting the white-haired boy to turn and face her, "It was attacked with bombs!"

"Oh yeah, I did hear about that on the news," Lincoln replied, "I still can't believe something like that would happen in Royal Woods."

"Well it did happen," Ronnie Anne said, "In fact, about a month or so after the attack on our school, the local sewage treatment plant was also attacked with bombs!"

"The local sewage treatment plant?" Lincoln repeated in a mildly confused tone, "Hey, isn't that where Chandler's dad works?"

"Yeah. That jerk's dad works at the sewage treatment plant," Ronnie Anne confirmed, "Oh, that reminds me. Chandler's dad actually got his huge promotion, so now he's some really big and important person where he works. The extra income Chandler's family is getting as a result of the promotion is making that jerk act like he's the richest guy at school."

"Great, as if his ego wasn't already inflated enough," Lincoln scowled bitterly. Before he took a bite of the soft taco he was eating, Lincoln asked, "Hey, wait. Was Chandler's dad hurt in the attack on the sewage treatment plant?"

"No, he wasn't," Ronnie Anne replied with a gentle head shake in the negative, "From what I heard, he wasn't even at the plant at the time of the bombing."

"Sort of like how you were out sick with the stomach flu the day your school was attacked," Bobby remarked as he pointed at his little sister.

"Yeah, kind of," Ronnie Anne agreed.

"Hey, I've been wondering about that," Lincoln began in a mildly concerned tone, "Who all wasn't hurt or killed in that attack?"

In response, Ronnie Anne went over everyone she knew was still alive. This included all of Lincoln's sisters who were RWES students, Lincoln's friends Clyde, Liam and Zach, all four of the girls that some of Lincoln's sisters tried to force him to go to a school dance with that one time ("Yeah, I still want to give Luna, Luan, Lynn and Lucy each a smacking for that," Ronnie Anne remarked casually), all of the Ace siblings who were RWES students, Lucy's crush Rocky, Lisa's friend Darcy, Chandler and his goon-friends ("Unfortunately," Ronnie Anne added), two boys named Winston and Skippy who Ronnie Anne admitted to having no idea who they were outside of the fact that they hang out with Lola and Lana a lot for some reason, and some boy named David who Ronnie Anne saw talk to Lisa a few times.

"Those are the only ones I know off the top of my head," Ronnie Anne said after she finished filling Lincoln in on what she knew.

"I see," Lincoln replied as he went over the list of people Ronnie Anne juts gave him. After he was doing a mental check list, Lincoln said, "It's kind of weird that so many people I know are still alive, even with that bombing."

"Yeah, that stomach flu that was going around actually saved a lot of hides that day, my own included," Ronnie Anne remarked.

"Do you, or either Lori or Bobby for that matter, know if the guys who were responsible for the bombing were ever caught?" Lincoln asked.

In response to her little brother's question, Lori gently shook her head in the negative. "I'm sorry, Lincoln," Lori replied, "But that all is still a mystery."

"…So, some guys who could have potentially hurt Lucy, the twins and/or Lisa are still at large?" Lincoln asked, his temper starting to rise just a bit. Standing up from the table where he and the other all sat, Lincoln continued, "Are you kidding me?!"

"I know how you feel, bro," Bobby remarked in an understanding tone, "You're an older brother worried about at least one younger sister." Holding a fist out to Lincoln to offer him a fist-bump, Bobby said, "You and I are of a kind."

"Oh, for the love of…" Ronnie Anne muttered in reference to her older brother being a goof as Lincoln accepted the older Santiago sibling's fist-bump. After Lincoln sat back down, Ronnie Anne continued, "If you want my opinion, I don't think you have to be too worried about your younger sisters, Lincoln." After taking a sip from her fountain drink, Ronnie Anne explained, "I think that whoever is responsible for the bombings is trying to get back at Chandler's folks."

"Chandler's folks?" Lincoln asked as he gave the Hispanic tomboy a questioning look.

"Chandler goes to the same school as us," Ronnie Anne said, "And his dad is now a really important person at the local sewage treatment plant. Both of those locations were attacked with the bombs."

"It could be just a coincidence, Nie-Nie," Bobby remarked.

"Maybe, but I still have my suspicions," Ronnie Anne replied, "And will you stop calling me by that nickname? It's embarrassing for me!" The group as a whole shared a good laugh, then proceeded to finish their lunch of tacos. After they were done eating, the group all got back into Bobby's car, and proceeded to make their way back to Royal Woods.

* * *

Bobby dropped Lincoln and Lori off at their place before he got himself and Ronnie Anne back to their place. After Lincoln got the few bags he had brought with him out of Bobby's trunk, the car took off, leaving Lincoln and Lori standing in front of their family's house. "Well…here we are, Lincoln," Lori said in an unsure tone, "…We're back home."

"…Yeah, home," Lincoln replied in a neutral tone as he and Lori walked up to the front door. As soon as the two Loud siblings walked into the house, they were greeted by a large, and I do mean large, furry dog that could give the dog that the Casagrandes own a run for its money in terms of size. Its fur was mostly black, although it did have a brownish underside what went up to the bottom of its muzzle. The dog also produced a loud, booming barking as soon as it saw the two Loud siblings enter the house, although most of it was aimed at Lincoln before it proceeded to sniff at him in a manner that most friendly, curious dogs would do.

"You…guys got a new dog while I was gone?" Lincoln asked in a cautious but mostly confused tone as the dog then started to lick his face.

"Oh no, this is actually Allison's dog Fenrir," Lori explained, "The girls and I are pet sitting for Allison and her siblings while they're still in the city. They'll come by to pick their pets up when they get back."

"Oh, so you are pet sitting for-" Lincoln began to reply, but he was cut off when Lola and Lana, the twin six-year-olds, saw Lincoln and immediately ran up to him.

"LINCOLN! YOU'RE BACK!" the twins cried out in unison as they threw their arms around their older brother, who had been missing for so long. As the twins hugged Lincoln while Fenrir continued to try and lick his face, the rest of the Loud sisters came to the front area of the house, having been summoned by hearing what Lola and Lana shouted.

"Whoa, dude," Luna said as she turned to look at Lori, "What you said about finding Lincoln in the city was right!"

"Lincoln, where have you been?" Luan said, clearly sounding like she was beyond worried.

"Wincon!" Lily, who was being carried by Luna, cried out as she tried waving her arms at Lincoln.

"I still cannot believe that you have been gone for so long," Lisa remarked, more than a hint of emotion seeping into her otherwise dry monotone, "I…I still cannot believe my role in what happened to bring about such a result."

"L…Linky…" Leni remarked, barely able to talk as tears started to well up in the corners of her eyes.

"Lincoln…" Lucy began as she took a step forward, "…I am so-"

"Hold up a minute there," Lynn said as she cut Lucy off, outing a hand on Lucy's shoulder from behind to get her to stop walking forward. With Lucy turning to face her athletic older sister, Lynn continued, "I know that you miss our brother just as much as the rest of us, but Lola and Lana are still practically crying on him. You gotta wait your turn, Princess Pony."

Some of the other girls, mainly Lisa, Luna and Luan, all chuckled a bit at the name that Lynn just refereed to Lucy as, prompting the gothic Loud sister to shrink back a bit. Lincoln noticed this, both the chuckling and Lucy shrinking back. Knowing what he wanted to do, he got the twins (both of which were too occupied with crying into Lincoln's chest to notice what Lynn had said) and Fenrir to back off so he could head over to Lynn.

"…Hey, Lynn," Lincoln began.

"Yeah, Linc-" Lynn said, but before she could even finish saying her younger brother's name, Lincoln cut her off by dealing a swift punch to her left eye. The punch had a fair bit of effort to it, but it was mainly the surprise factor of the punch that prompted Lynn to fall back a bit. Seeing their brother, having just returned to them, punch Lynn in the eye like that made every Loud sister take pause; even Lynn, once she recovered, could not find it in her to do anything, due to the sheer surprise of what Lincoln did just now.

With all of his sisters facing him, Lincoln said, "…Do any of you know _why_ I took the fall for what Lucy did? Because I knew full well that you all would do to her what you all ended up doing to me if I didn't!"

"Li…Lincoln," Lori began, feeling concerned about her little brother's current venting, not to mention still a little surprised that the white-haired boy struck Lynn the way he did, "We…we're sorry about all of the crap we gave you over that. You didn't deserve the way that we treated you back then."

"Who _does_ deserve to be treated like that?!" Lincoln snapped. Although the white-haired boy's triad was mostly aimed at Lori, Lincoln having snapped at the oldest Loud sister like that made every sister, even Lucy, visibly flinch. "You know what I gave up just to keep you and the others from teasing our sister? The punishment I went through? The sacrifice I made?" Lincoln went on as he continued his rant at Lori, "I guess all of my efforts ended up being for nothing, all because you just couldn't let sleeping dogs lie, and the rest of you girls just can't help but take any and every opportunity you can get to make each other as miserable as possible! It's no wonder why a lot of us in this family try so hard to keep secrets, if _that_ is the way that we treat each other when said secrets are made public!"

The sole Loud boy proceeded to breath in and out audibly, his rant he just finished having left him just a little bit shaky. Lori and the rest of the Loud sisters all looked more or less ashamed of themselves. Even Lucy, who the rant was not aimed at in the least, also felt guilty, as she also had some guilt in regard to messing with the other Loud sisters. "…Just…Just please…" Lincoln said in a somewhat quiet tone, getting all of the sisters to turn to face him, "…Don't make fun of each other over your interests anymore."

Lori and the other girls all looked to each other, everyone unsure of what to say because of Lincoln's explosion just now. After a tense few seconds of silence, Lori said, "Al…Alright, Lincoln. We won't tease each other anymore."

"You…you can feel free to punch me in the eye again if I make a repeat of teasing any of our siblings," Lynn offered, sounding mildly unsure because of what had happened.

Giving Lynn a dry look, Lincoln replied, "…If I do take you up on that, chances are you'll eventually lose an eye." This drew a fair bit of chuckling out of the girls; even Lynn found some humor in what her little brother just said.

* * *

In addition to Allison's dog Fenrir (who Lincoln learned is a Tibetan Mastiff), Lincoln saw that his sisters were also pet sitting Spirit, a skunk belonging to Allison's sister Amy, and Kyubi, a red fox belonging to Allison's brother Aggro. Given some of the animals that the white-haired boy has seen his younger sister Lana handle, a skunk and a fox weren't all that surprising. It also helped when Lisa explained that both skunks and foxes can be legally kept as pets in Michigan.

Sometime the morning after Lincoln returned home to Royal Woods, the Aces came back from the city. Allison, Aggro and Amy came by to collect their pets, the Loud sisters were paid, and after Aggro, in a friendly yet mildly concerned tone, asked Leni how she was feeling, the three oldest Ace siblings took their leave. After the Aces left, the Loud siblings all turned to face each other. "So…now what?" Luan asked.

"I want to go check up on a few things," Lincoln began to explain, "See what all I missed while I was gone."

"You…you aren't going to be gone for too long, are you?" Luna asked.

With a gentle chuckle, Lincoln replied, "No, no I shouldn't be. I called Ronnie Anne ahead of time, shortly before Allison and her siblings came by to pick up their pets, and told her that I wanted her to come along as I checked up on everything. If it comes down to it, you can call her up, and maybe Bobby since he also knows, if you get worried about me."

"Th…thanks for letting us know," Lori replied, surprised that her little brother went through the trouble of setting up a safety line in case any of the girls wanted to get ahold of him.

"No problem," Lincoln replied. Turning to face the door, Lincoln continued, "Now then. If you all will excuse me, I've got some friends to go visit." Lincoln then opened the door and walked out of the house, closing the door behind him.

* * *

Lincoln met up with Ronnie Anne, and together the two of them headed off to Gus' Games and Grub at Ronnie Anne's suggestion. When the two of them got there, Lincoln saw why Ronnie Anne suggested Gus', as when they entered the establishment, they were met up by Clyde, Zach and Liam. "Lincoln, my man!" Clyde said as he, Liam and Zach came walking up, "You've been gone for ages! What happened to you, dude?"

"Lincoln's sisters were being jerks, but that's besides the point," Ronnie Anne remarked in a more or less casual tone. Jerking a thumb at Lincoln, the Hispanic tomboy continued, "So anywho, I brought the guy of honor, so are we going to party or what?"

"Wait a minute," Lincoln remarked in a mildly confused tone, "Party?"

"We're celebrating you having come back to Royal Woods after being gone for so long, Lincoln," Zach explained, "I mean, the heck kind of friends would we be if we didn't go all out for your big return?"

Lincoln couldn't help but smile; his friends clearly did miss him, and they had even gone through all of this trouble to kick his return off with a party, especially considering how short notice it must be. Speaking of friends, there was a friend…or rather, a _former_ friend, that the white-haired boy wanted to discuss something with.

"I…don't suppose any of you guys know where Rusty is, do you?" Lincoln asked.

"Rusty? You mean that jerk?" Liam began, his tone clearly indicating how poor of an opinion he had for the older Spokes boy, "Why would you want to see him? That guy is lower than a Dachshund's belly to the ground! I mean, you _have_ heard of what he did while you were gone, didn't you?"

"Oh, I've heard, alright," Lincoln replied in something of a knowing tone. As he cracked his knuckles, Lincoln continued, "And that's actually part of why I want to speak with Rusty. I've got a few choice words for that bastard." Clyde, Liam and Zach all nodded in an understanding manner, knowing full well that Lincoln was not happy to have heard what their former friend did to Lucy. Ronnie Anne not only nodded in an approving manner, but she even let out a bit of a chuckle, finding amusement in what the white-haired boy was saying and doing right now.

…

Lincoln, Clyde, Zach, Liam and Ronnie Anne all had a good time at Gus'. Pizza was eaten and soda was consumed. The five fifth-graders proceeded to make their way over to the arcade section of Gus', but Clyde stopped the group suddenly. "Whoa, you guys," Clyde remarked in a tone that conveyed some level of disgust, "I think that we should avoid going into the arcade right now. Chandler's in there with his group."

"Well that just ruined an otherwise perfect day," Liam said, his tone matching that of Clyde's.

Curious, Lincoln leaned to his side slightly so he could get a better look of Chandler and his group in the arcade area of Gus'. Sure enough, Lincoln saw Chandler in there, watching with his first goon-friend, two other boys and a girl as Chandler's second goon-friend was playing one of the dancing games. To his credit, the second goon-friend was nothing short of amazing at that dancing game; Lincoln wondered if that boy was the one who held the last record at the dancing game that he (Lincoln) remembered seeing prior to his…extended absence.

But that's not what really caught Lincoln's attention; what caught his attention was the fact that Chandler's group now had a girl in its number. This girl that was with Chandler's group was roughly the same height as Lincoln, his friends and Ronnie Anne, so the white-haired boy assumed that this girl was a fifth grader same as them. She had long white hair, wore a white long-sleeved blouse that had an orange-colored sailor-style collar, an orange ribbon laced through a loop around her neck, a dark blue skirt that reached her knees, a pair of loose socks, and a pair of black slip on shoes. Also, Lincoln could tell just by looking at the girl that she has some sort of Asian heritage.

"When…when did Chandler get a girl in his group?" Lincoln asked as he straightened himself back out and turned to face his friends, "Because last I checked, girls weren't exactly lining up for a shot to hang out with Chandler and the guys he's friends with."

Sighing in a resigned tone, Ronnie Anne explained, "That girl you see with them is Astrid Ace, who's a close friend of mine. I'm not sure if you know this Lincoln, but Chandler has been trying to flirt with Astrid for a very long time in an attempt to get her as his girlfriend. She was able to keep that jerk off for a while, and was even able to avoid him a few times due to how frequently she gets sick." With another resigned sigh, the Hispanic tomboy continued, "But it didn't last forever, I'm afraid. Chandler's efforts eventually won out, and now he and Astrid are going out."

"That's awful," Lincoln thought as he turned his attention back over to where Chandler and the rest of his group were hanging out. Lincoln specifically took a look at Astrid; she was smiling, but Lincoln could tell that she was only trying to keep up appearances, that the fifth-grade Ace girl would much rather be somewhere else. But the girl was trapped, all because Chandler just had to have whatever he wanted, when he wanted it, and without any care for what other people may want. The conceited boy probably only saw Astrid as a trophy that he won, rather than seeing her the way that Bobby saw Lori.

The sole Loud boy was filled with disgust.

Straightening himself back out, Lincoln said as he turned to face the boys and Ronnie Anne, "I don't suppose any of you can have all of us over to play video games, do you?"

"There's plenty of space at my place, and I did just get a new video game that I've been wanting to show to the guys," Clyde replied, "I'll just have to ask my dads first if it's okay to bring you all over."

"Your dads are pretty chill people," Ronnie Anne said to Clyde in a casual tone. Clyde, Liam, Zach and Lincoln all nodded in agreement as Clyde pulled out a phone so he could call his parents. While Clyde was doing that, Lincoln's mind wandered back to the subject of Chandler trying to force his way onto everyone else, along with what Rusty had the gull to do and how that jerk Francisco broke Lynn's heart.

The sole Loud boy was filled with disgust.

* * *

"Are…are you serious?!" Luna asked Lori as they and the other eight Loud sisters were all in Lori and Leni's room for a sister meeting while Lincoln was out. It was clear by her tone that Luna felt that she and the girls were just given something that she felt they didn't deserve (or at least something that she (Luna) didn't deserve). "He's just letting us off the hook that easily?!" the musically inclined Loud sister more or less exclaimed, a hint of her practiced British accent slipping into her words.

"Lincoln did say that he felt we suffered more than we should have while he was gone, and that he also said that he just didn't feel like giving us the cold shoulder by the time I finally found him," Lori remarked. With a guilty sigh, the oldest Loud sister continued, "But I understand how you feel, Luna. We literally don't deserve to be let off the hook just like that, even with what Lincoln said. What we did…" Lori paused to turn to face Lynn. "… _Especially you_ …" Lori said to the athletic Loud sister before turning back to face everyone as a whole. "…To Lincoln cannot be excused so easily, if at all. Which is why I propose that the lot of us all work together on a little plan I have that I'd like to call 'Operation do something really nice for Lincoln to deserve his forgiveness for real and I really need to think of a shorter name for this operation'."

Lily made random baby babble in response, which Luan, who can surprisingly translate what Lily says, took the liberty of translating. "Lily said that she wants to do what she can to help with properly deserving Lincoln's forgiveness, and that she recommends the name 'Operation Brother' as a shorter name for your plan," Luan said to the oldest Loud sibling. After Luan finished talking, Lily nodded in agreement, confirming that Luan's translation of her baby babbling was accurate.

"Okay girls," Lori said to her sisters as a whole, "Let's get cracking on this!" The other sisters all let out cheers of agreement, signifying the start of their efforts to try and make things right with their brother, so that they can actually _deserve_ to have their brother back.

END, BROKEN MIRROR NEW WAR CHAPTER TEN

Author's notes:

Without giving away too much, the next chapter will see Lincoln and a few other people go to a carnival that's being held in Royal Woods, and Lincoln ends up befriending a fortune teller who may or may not be from Latvia. Also, Lincoln will be seeing at least of the people on a certain list of his from a while ago.

Also, what did I tell you about the girls acting to properly deserve Lincoln's forgiveness?


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Broken Mirror: New War

Chapter eleven: Overdue Karma

Lincoln Loud woke up in his (formerly boarded up) bedroom in his family's house in Royal Woods, Michigan, one Saturday morning a few days after he returned home after having been gone for so long due to running away from home. Stretching a bit after getting out of bed, the white-haired boy walked out of his bedroom. When he did, he saw that there was a line to use the bathroom; Leni was at the head of the line, followed by Luna, Luan, and Lola. Judging by the sounds coming from the bathroom, Lincoln believed that someone, most likely Lori, was taking a shower.

"…I'm guessing that the rest of our sisters already got their showers?" Lincoln said in a somewhat sleepy tone as he walked up to the line, taking his place behind Lola. Having heard their only brother talk, the girls that were in the line all turned to face him.

"Oh, good morning Lincoln," Luan greeted in a friendly tone, "Actually, Lori's the first of us to get into the bathroom for a shower. The rest of us are just waiting for our turns."

"…What about Lynn, Lucy, Lana and Lisa?" Lincoln asked, a confused look on his face.

"Lynn said that she was planning to get a workout this morning and would take a shower when she was done," Lola said as she began to list things off of her fingertips, "Lucy and Lisa both said they would wait until the rest of us are done, and Lana said she's not planning to take a shower or bath today."

"And mom said something about giving Lily a bath later," Luan added.

"Fair enough," Lincoln replied, nodding a few times in understanding. As everyone continued to wait in line for their turn, Lincoln, in an attempt to make conversation, said, "So, uhh, girls." When Lincoln's sisters that were in the line all turned to face him again, Lincoln said, "Is…there anything going today?"

"Mom says that she's taking me to that psycho doctor later after lunch," Leni explained, "He's a pretty weird doctor, since he hasn't given me a check-up or anything like that."

"Leni, brah, that's not what a psychologist does," Luna remarked, her tone sounding concerned as she gently laid a hand on Leni's shoulder. "You…you do remember what you tried to do a while ago…don't you?" Luna asked while the other girls that were in the line wore concerned looks on their faces. Lincoln's expression also showed concern, given that he's familiar with what Luna was talking about since he was informed on the matter.

The matter of Leni having attempted suicide while he (Lincoln) was living in the city as a runaway.

"…Oh, that," Leni replied in a mildly guilty tone; even she, someone who occasionally misses certain cues, knew what her musically inclined younger sister was talking about. "I'm…I'm sorry, Luna," Leni continued, "It's…it's just that I-"

"Okay, all done," Lori said as she walked out of the bathroom wearing a bathrobe, a towel wrapped around her hair, "Who's next?"

"I…" Leni said, sounding like she wasn't quite sure what to think, "…I think Luna's next."

"Really?" Lori replied in a mildly confused tone, "Because from the looks of it, I'd say that you were-"

"I'm sure," Leni said, cutting Lori off in the process. To her credit, Lori could tell that Leni didn't want the matter to be pushed any further, so she respected her sister's wishes.

"Umm…okay," Lori said, trying to be delicate in the situation she found herself in. Turning to face the rest of her siblings that were waiting in line to use the bathroom, Lori said, "Where are Lynn, Lucy, Lana and Lisa? Are none of them even planning to take a shower today? That would literally be gross."

"Lucy and Lisa are going to wait until there isn't a line, Lynn's going to wait until after a morning workout, and Lana's not going to get one period," Lincoln said, "At least that's what Lola told me." The pageant winning Loud sister nodded in confirmation.

Sighing in a mildly annoyed tone, Lori said, "Figures that Lana would want to avoid getting clean. At least Lucy, Lisa and Lynn all have reasonable excuses." Turning to head into her and Leni's bedroom, Lori said, "I'm going to get dressed, then track down Lana and make her take a bath or shower. I don't want any of you to smell bad when my Boo-Boo Bears comes by later to pick me up so he can take me to the carnival for a date."

"Oh yeah, Ronnie Anne told me about that," Lincoln said, "She said that she's really looking forward to it."

"Aww, isn't that sweet!" Lola said, "You're taking her out on a date to the carnival!"

"It's not a date!" Lincoln said, clearly looking embarrassed, "It's just…that she wants to go and…well since Lori and Bobby are already going, I figured that-" The sisters that were in the hallway all started giggling in amused, knowing tones, and then proceeded to offer a number of tips to their only brother. Lincoln couldn't believe that his sisters were doing something like this to him again.

…It made him feel like he was really home.

* * *

Later, Bobby's car pulled into a parking lot that was outside of the carnival grounds. Bobby got out from his car, followed by Lori, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne. "Well, here we are," Bobby said to the group, "We're at the carnival."

"I wanna go see if there's one of those fortune teller tents set up here," Ronnie Anne said. Grabbing Lincoln by his right hand, Ronnie Anne continued, "Come on, Lincoln, let go!" Before he could even object, Lincoln was dragged off in the direction of the carnival by Ronnie Anne. Watching the two of them head towards the carnival grounds, Lori and Bobby could not help but let out some amused chuckles.

After both Lori and Bobby sighed in unison, Bobby said, "…So is what you told me over the phone last night true? You and your sisters all intend to do something really big for Lincoln?"

"Yes, it literally is true," Lori replied, "In fact, me bringing Lincoln here is part of what I'm doing for my part in trying to makes things up to Lincoln."

"Well I'm glad to see that you're wanting to try and make things right," Bobby remarked, "And I have no doubt that the bro will have a good time here."

"…Yeah," Lori said, "Yeah, Lincoln will have a blast here." Turning to face the direction of the carnival, Lori continued as she and bobby walked towards the carnival grounds, "From the looks of it, your sister is going to enjoy herself as well."

* * *

Lincoln and Ronnie Anne were wandering through the festival grounds. As they looked around, Ronnie Anne spotted a stall that was selling caramel apples, saying that she wanted one since her mother never allowed her to have one before for some odd reason. Lincoln bought both Ronnie Anne and himself one caramel apple each, thankful that his careful spending with the money he earned doing various odd jobs in the city he ran away to allowed him to save up a rather impressive sum of money for a child his age.

"Dude, if my mom found out I actually had a caramel apple, she would totally flip," Ronnie Anne said to Lincoln after finishing her caramel apple.

"Why does your mom not want you to have a caramel apple?" Lincoln asked in a mildly confused tone, "Is she worried about your teeth or something?"

With an indifferent shrug, Ronnie Anne replied, "I guess so. Although my mom does forget that a caramel apple won't instantly dissolve my teeth on contact, and so long as I brush my teeth regularly, my teeth will be fi-" Ronnie Anne was cut off when the yapping of a small dog caught both her attention and Lincoln's attention. The two fifth-graders saw a Papillon running up to them, specifically Lincoln. Having also finished his caramel apple, Lincoln was free to bend over and pick up the small dog. From what Lincoln could tell, the Papillon was a male that he estimated to be about three-and-a-half to four years of age. Its fur was all white, save for the honey-brown fur around its ears and parts of its face.

"Did someone's dog get loose here at the carnival?" Lincoln said rhetorically as he checked the dog's collar. Luckily, it had a nametag; reading it, Lincoln learned that the dog's name was Danior.

"That's an…interesting name for a dog," Ronnie Anne remarked in a more or less confused tone, having no idea of what to make of the dog's name.

"Well maybe we'll find the dog's owner and return their pet to them," Lincoln replied. Ronnie Anne nodded in agreement as she and Lincoln proceeded to make their way through the carnival, with Lincoln carrying Danior the Papillon.

* * *

As they walked through the carnival, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne were asking people that they pass if they owned the dog they found. The two fifth graders failed to find the dogs owner, but then again, most people generally don't bring their dogs to carnivals.

"Well this is dumb," Ronnie Anne remarked, "We can't find the dog's owner anywhere."

"We just have to keep looking," Lincoln remarked, "Besides, I bet that whoever this dog belongs to is really worried about him." With a knowing sigh, Lincoln added, "They probably feel the same way that-"

"How dare you!" an older woman's voice called out, cutting Lincoln off in the process and prompting him and Ronnie Anne to turn and see what was going on. They saw two people; the first was a man who Lincoln estimated to be no older than Lynn Sr.; this man was dressed in a suit that made him look like he was an important, well-off person.

The second person was an older woman who wore a brightly colored dress that had yellow sleeves and a yellow-and-purple top and a purple skirt that was black along the bottom for about a foot or so; there was an orange sash tied around the woman's waist with the excess length hanging off along the woman's right side, and another sash, this one yellow, also hanging around the woman's waist but it dipped towards the left. The woman also wore a few beaded necklaces, a pair of earrings, a circlet (surprisingly), and a pair of sandals. As for the woman herself, she was a slim, fair-skinned older woman who looked to be early seventies, and she had long gray hair. Also, for a woman her age, she was actually rather appealing.

What Lincoln and Ronnie Anne saw as they came upon the scene was the woman pointing condemningly at the man. "How dare you speak in such a manner!" the older woman said accusingly at the man, "And not only that, but you even knocked over my table and laughed at my expense when my drink spilled! You are the worst kind of person! You will pay dearly for this! You will lose everything! You will lose it all!"

"Oh, that's real cute," the man said in a condescending tone, "An old fortune teller lady telling someone that they're cursed." Turning around the walk away, the man said as he left, "Pfft, yeah right. Like anyone actually believes that fortune mumbo jumbo." After the man left, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne came walking up to the woman.

"Miss, are you okay?" Lincoln asked, "That man seemed-" Lincoln stopped short as Danior started trying to squirm in his arms, clearly trying to get to the woman.

"What are you doing with Danior?" the older woman asked Lincoln upon seeing the Papillon the white-haired boy was holding.

"Wait a minute…" Lincoln began, "…Is this your dog?"

"Yes, he is," the older woman replied in a kind, gentle tone, "The little fellow loves getting into mischief from time to time."

As Lincoln handed Danior over to the older woman, Ronnie Anne said, "Yeah, your dog came running up to us while we were walking around the carnival, finishing off our caramel apples."

"Well he is a friendly little scamp," the older woman said as she held Danior, "Always loves to meet new people." Looking from the dog she held over to where the two fifth-graders stood, the older woman said, "I am Madam Lavinia Armani. I am here at the carnival to offer my services as a fortune teller."

"Oh, I was actually looking to see if there was a fortune teller here at the carnival," Ronnie Anne said, "Are you working right now?"

"I will need to clean the inside of my tent," Lavinia said in a mildly resigned tone, "I am not sure if you saw, but the last man who was in my tent knocked over a table I had set up inside, plus he laughed at my expense when my drink was spilled, and he said rude things to me."

"Yeesh, what a jerk," Ronnie Anne remarked, clearly sounding like she wouldn't mind finding the man who acted like that towards Lavinia and give him a good punch in the nose.

"Would you like some help cleaning up?" Lincoln half asked half offered, sincerely trying to be nice to the older woman.

The fortune teller gave Lincoln a look of consideration. After a few seconds, she gave a gentle, appreciative smile. "You are nothing like that man from earlier, young child," Lavinia remarked, "And I could actually use some help." Gesturing to her fortune teller's tent, Lavinia said to the two fifth-graders, "Come."

…

The inside of Lavinia's tent looked like what most people would expect from a fortune teller's tent at a carnival; there was one table that was somewhat knocked over, three chairs, and another table in the corner that had a dog bed sitting on it (this was obviously for Danior). Laying on the ground were some candles, a crystal ball, and a cup that was laying in a puddle of some drink (Lavinia said that it was tea).

Lincoln set to work with helping Lavinia clean up while Ronnie Anne kept a hold on Danior so that he wouldn't get in the way. After a minute or two, everything was cleaned up as well as it would be. "Well, this will do for now," Lavinia said after setting her crystal ball back into the crystal ball stand it was in, "Thank goodness my crystal ball wasn't damaged."

"I'm really sorry about how that guy acted towards you, miss," Lincoln remarked in an apologetic tone, "That…that was uncalled for."

"You have no need to apologize, young man," Lavinia replied in a gentle, appreciative tone, "Although it's sweet of you to show such sympathy."

"That's…just the way I am, really," Lincoln said in a mildly unsure tone, "…I guess."

Lavinia then gave a good-natured laugh, finding Lincoln's modesty to be mildly amusing in a sweet way. "You give yourself nowhere near as much credit as you deserve," Lavinia said to the white-haired boy. As she waved a hand at Lincoln in one movement, Lavinia said, "You deserve a life that is overall charmed, free of minor troubles and with occasional bursts of fortune."

"Uhh," Lincoln remarked in a mildly confused yet overall appreciative tone, "No one has ever said anything like that about me before. Thanks."

"It is no trouble, my child," Lavinia replied with a gentle smile, "Now then, is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Actually, Ronnie Anne said that she was hoping to find a fortune teller at the carnival here," Lincoln explained as he pointed to the Hispanic tomboy.

"It's true," Ronnie Anne remarked, "I was hoping to get my fortune told."

"Very well," Lavinia said in an understanding tone. Holding her right hand out to Ronnie Anne with the palm facing up, Lavinia said, "Cross my palm with silver." When both fifth graders looked at her with expressions of confusion, the fortune teller let out an amused laugh after she got a look at their faces for a few seconds. "I jest, young ones," the older woman said, "The fee for telling fortunes is five dollars."

* * *

After a fun-filled day at the carnival, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne, following behind Lori and Bobby, left the carnival grounds. As the four of them walked to Bobby's car, Ronnie Anne told the teenagers all about her and Lincoln's experiences at the carnival that day. "…Yeah, I have to agree with you on that one, Nie-Nie," Bobby remarked, "I don't really see the point of mom trying to keep you from having caramel apples. You brush your teeth regularly, so there should not be any problem." Giving his little sister a knowing look, Bobby said, "Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me."

"Well that's really nice, but that's not quite the point of what I was trying to say," Ronnie Anne replied, "What I was trying to say is that important-looking man who gave that fortune teller lady trouble is a real jerk."

"She's right, Bobby," Lincoln said, "In fact, I wouldn't be surprise if the reason why Ronnie Anne and I found the fortune teller's dog wandering around is because that man had-" Lincoln stopped short when something on the ground caught his attention. Walking over, Lincoln got a better look at what he spotted. "Hey," Lincoln said in a mildly surprised tone as he bent over to pick up what he found, "A twenty!"

"Wow, talk about luck," Lori remarked in a mildly amused tone as her little brother pocketed the twenty-dollar bill that he found.

"Hey, maybe this has to do with what the fortune teller lady said to you," Ronnie Anne remarked to Lincoln as he came back walking over.

"It's just a coincidence," Lincoln replied, "There's-" The white-haired boy was cut off when he and the rest of the group heard some shouting coming from the carnival grounds behind them. Turning around, Lincoln, Ronnie Anne, Lori and Bobby saw someone being loaded into an ambulance; off to the side, they saw an adult woman, accompanied by the Ace twins Allison and Aggro, getting into a shouting match with a man who Lincoln and Ronnie Anne were able to identify as the important-looking man who gave trouble to Lavinia the fortune teller lady. Standing behind the important-looking man, to Lincoln and Ronnie Anne's mutual disgust, was Chandler. The conceited boy looked mildly worried, something that the two fifth-graders never saw from him before.

"…What is Aggro and Allison's mom doing getting into a shouting match with that guy?" Bobby asked in a confused tone as he commented on what he and the others were seeing. Seeing as how the group was standing right next to Bobby's car, the teens instructed their respective younger siblings to wait by the car while they headed over to investigate. After a tense few minutes of them waiting, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne saw Lori and Bobby come back over. Both teens looked rightfully angry. "…No wonder Aggro is pissed," Bobby remarked to Lori as they came back over, "I mean, if some little bastard did something like that to Ronnie Anne, I'd be wanting to give the responsible little creep a good beating myself."

"What's going on, Bobby?" Ronnie Anne asked, sounding worried.

Sighing in a resigned tone, Bobby explained, "Apparently, Aggro's little sister Astrid was on a date at the carnival with her little boyfriend when said boyfriend got her something that made her really sick, requiring her to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance."

"Wait, is was Astrid who was being loaded into that ambulance?!" Ronnie Anne nearly exclaimed. Pounding a fist into her hand, the Hispanic tomboy swore in a vengeful tone, "I am so going to make Chandler's face look like a Picasso for this."

"Although I don't like defending Chandler," Lincoln began, "Keep in mind that he got Astrid food here at the carnival. Carnival food has…something of a reputation of not being the best in the world."

"He's literally right, Ronnie Anne," Lori said to her boyfriend's younger sister. To both fifth graders, Lori continued, "Although actually, the brat didn't get any stereotypical carnival food for Allison's little sister. He got her some sweet thing that messed with some kidney problem she has. I'm not too entirely sure what it is, though."

"…I'm going to destroy him," Ronnie Anne remarked casually, "Mark my words. Chandler is going down." Both Lori and Bobby exchanged worried looks with each other.

* * *

As it turned out, Chandler knew about why Astrid couldn't have anything with too much sugar in it, or having too much sugar in general; he just didn't believe what Astrid said about what would happen if she did have too much sugar. After everyone had gone home, Lincoln and Lori told the other Loud siblings what happened at the carnival. "Yeah, me and Rocky's friend Argent said something about his older sister having some sort of health problem," Lucy remarked, a hint of concern seeping into her otherwise emotionless monotone.

"I still cannot believe that a girl as respectable as her would be willing to date such a Neanderthal," Lisa stated as she gently pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose, a hint of disgust in her otherwise dry monotone, "She does know what he and his goonish friends have done, doesn't she?"

"The teachers said that he doesn't have anything to do with contributing to the school's bullying problem," Lola remarked, sounding like she believed it simply because it's what the teachers at school had said.

"Because he has them all duped, sis," Lana argued, her tone showing that she shared Lisa's feelings on the matter, "He is one manipulative jerk."

"And the award for understatement of the year goes to you, Lana," Lincoln said in a dry, sarcastic tone. Speaking seriously, Lincoln continued as his sisters all turned to face him, "Yeah, I've dealt with Chandler more than once, so I know what he's like. If you and the rest of the girls all want my opinion on the matter, it's that you all should keep yourselves as far from Chandler as you can manage. He cannot be trusted."

"Alright, Lincoln," Lana remarked as she and the other sisters who attended RWES all nodded in agreement, "You, we can trust."

"Well I'm glad to see that you all trust me so much," Lincoln replied, a small but appreciative smile on his face; this level of trust and respect he was getting was something that he would have appreciated _before_ he was compelled to run away from home, but hey, at least he's getting this level of trust and respect now. Suddenly, Lincoln snapped his fingers as he said, "Oh! I almost forgot something!" Turning to face Leni, Lincoln said as he rummaged through a bag he had with him, "While I was at the carnival, I found something I figured you may like, Leni." Lincoln then pulled out and sub sequentially handed over to Leni a folded-up scarf; it was white, with black lines going up and across it, giving it an appearance of being made of scales. There were also fringes at both ends of the scarf. "Here you go," the white-haired boy said as he handed the gift over to Leni.

"Aww, that is so sweet, Lincoln," Leni replied, sounding genuinely touched. That made sense, given that the ditzy Loud sibling _was_ genuinely touched by her little brother's gesture. After throwing the scarf on, Leni asked, "How do I look?"

"You literally look cute," Lori said, "And I bet that Aggro would get a kick out of you wearing that scarf, seeing as how he bought one for himself just like it while he was at the carnival."

Gasping in a shocked tone, Leni said, "Aggro and I have matching scarves?" The ditzy Loud sibling then squealed in an excited tone as she hopped up and down. As the Loud girls all told Leni that she totally had a shot with the male Ace twin, Lincoln smiled in a gentle manner, glad that his older sister was happy. After what the Loud sisters as a whole went through while he was gone, Lincoln felt that they could use a break, Leni especially.

Lincoln hoped that Leni being excited over scarves would keep her bust for a while. The sole Loud boy had some…work…to take care of. But that would have to wait until it was dark out; it was still currently early to midafternoon, and there was something that Lincoln wanted to go and see, despite the mildly morbid nature of the visit he wanted to pay. It was a visit that Lincoln would need Lisa, and her friend Darcy Helmandollar, to accompany him on, given how the two four-year-old girls were connected.

* * *

Lincoln, while escorting Lisa and Darcy, entered the Royal Woods Cemetery later that afternoon. Since he had no idea how to get to where he wanted to go, Lincoln asked his brainy younger sister and her friend with the stuffed giraffe to lead the way. After about a minute or so of walking, the two kindergarten girls led the white-haired boy over to what he wanted to see here at the cemetery; a grave marker that was in the ground. Inscribed into the grave marker was the name Hugo Ashveil, the boy from their class that Lisa and Darcy tried to befriend.

The boy who, due to being bullied relentlessly at school, ended up committing suicide.

Looking down at Hugo's grave marker, Lincoln read the dates under the deceased child's name; he was roughly the same age as Lisa at the time he took his life. Lincoln could not believe that the bullying problem at RWES was so terrible that it resulted in a four-year-old boy committing suicide just to get away from the older kids who were tormenting him. If there was any silver lining to this terrible result, it's that it inspired the school district as a whole to crack down on bullying harder than ever.

Does it really take a young child committing suicide to inspire people into action?

"So…" Lincoln began as he, Lisa and Darcy looked down at the grave marker, "…This is your friend from school." The tone that the white-haired boy used lacked any discernable emotion, similar to that of Lucy's usual tone.

"Y-yes," Lisa replied, surprisingly sounding like she was having a bit of trouble trying to keep it together, "This is H-Hugo, or r-rather where he is n-now. Darcy and I c-came here with others t-the day Hugo w-was interred here." Even with her efforts, Lisa was still stammering a bit, a clear sign that she was trying not to cry, or that she was about to. Darcy, on the other hand, was softly crying to herself.

"…Lisa, I want you to be honest with me," Lincoln began, prompting both Lisa and Darcy to turn and face him. "…On a scale of one to ten," Lincoln began, "How likely do you believe Lana's claims about who drove your friend to this point to be true?"

"Very," Lisa replied briskly, clearly sounding upset, too upset to give a proper response to a 'scale of one to ten' type question. But then again, Lisa is a four-year-old girl who was visiting the grave of a child from her class who she tried to befriend. Genius or not, this was something that Lisa would not be able to do without her emotions trying to get the best of her.

"…I see," Lincoln replied, Lisa's response to his question being all of the information he needed. Even though he still didn't know if Chandler really had anything to do with this, Lincoln wouldn't be surprised in the least if the conceited boy actually went so far as to torment a four-year-old to the point that said four-year-old took his own life, just to get away from Chandler's relentless tormenting.

Adding into consideration the fact that Astrid Ace is implied to be dating Chandler because she more or less wasn't given a say in the matter, and the fact that Chandler had actually sent Astrid to the hospital because he got her something to eat at the carnival that she should not have been given (Lincoln also knew that Astrid specifically told Chandler why she couldn't eat what he got her), the white-haired boy saw that his choice could not have been clearer.

Chandler would be the first person on his 'list' that he'd pay a visit to.

* * *

It was late at night in Royal Woods; Chandler's parents went out on a date night, and since his mom hired that nice old Jewish lady that she held in high regard to look after him for the night, the conceited boy knew that his parents were going to rent a motel room (he also had a pretty good idea what his parents intended to do in said motel room), and would not be back until sometime the following morning.

Oh well, no skin of Chandler's nose. After dinner, which consisted of a meal that Chandler's mom prepared ahead of time, the nice old Jewish lady sat down in Chandler's dad's recliner, turned on some show, and promptly fell asleep about five minutes after an episode from some show about a group of six or so teenagers living in the nineteen-seventies started. This was a lucky break for Chandler; since the old lady would be out like a light for the rest of the night, he would be able to stay up as late as he wanted so he could play video games. It helped that Chandler didn't have school the following morning.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor in his bedroom, Chandler turned on the TV in his room, turned on his new Playtendo Swap, and proceeded to play a port of a popular RPG about a hero learning the language of dragons, even though the game was rated far too high for a boy Chandler's age to be playing. After making some considerable progress in his game, the conceited boy let out a yawn, clearly a sign that he wouldn't be able to stay up for much longer.

While Chandler was making his way through a town in his game, he started to doze off. Eventually, he fell asleep altogether, sitting in a crossed-leg position on the floor as his back leaned against his bed. The conceited boy would have a bit of a late start the following morning, but since there would be no school in the morning, there wouldn't be any actual harm.

…

Lincoln snuck his way into Chandler's place. The white-haired boy once again wore his outfit that he had when he did his work as Broken Mirror in the city that he ran away to. However, Lincoln would be leaving no calling card behind this time; as far as the public of Royal Woods as a whole knew, Chandler was just some conceited little kid, not a violent youth gang member or a grown adult using frustration with how the city's being run as an excuse to carry out hate crimes.

Also, if Lincoln did leave his calling card, then not only would the name of Broken Mirror end up being associated with murdering an innocent (pfft, yeah right) kid, but people will also proceed to ask questions about why Broken Mirror has not only apparently changed alignments but was now operating in Royal Woods rather than in the city. Some of Lincoln's friends or, skies above forbid, his sisters, might even end up connecting some dots that Lincoln does not want connected.

Lincoln also came prepared for how he wanted to do this. In addition to all of the money he earned doing various odd jobs while living in the city, when Lincoln came back to Royal Woods, he brought with him the clothes that he got, what remained of the personal hygiene products he had, and the butterfly knife he picked up very early in his career as Broken Mirror; pretty much the only thing he didn't bring with him was the gun he lifted from the hideout of the two men he gave directions to that one time. But then again, the sole Loud boy was completely out of ammo, and it would raise a lot of questions if a boy his age tried to go about getting more bullets.

But this is getting off subject. Among the possessions Lincoln brought back with him from the city to Royal Woods was a bottle of chloroform that he picked up while he was dealing with the problem of the violent youth gang. The white-haired boy did some research on his discovery, and learned that the idea of people knocking someone out with a chloroform-soaked rag was not as accurate as it was in real life; it would take roughly five minutes for such a method to actually have any effect.

It is for this reason that Lincoln only ever used the chloroform once; he caused some rather serious damage to one of the adults that committed a violent anti-Hispanic hate crime, who Lincoln ended up cornering alone in an abandoned building. The woman (yes, it was a woman) was laying on the ground, bleeding a lot. Lincoln dampened a rag with the chloroform, then covered the adult's mouth with said cloth. The process of the method was sped up in this case; the white-haired boy attributed the method's increased speed in this case to the blood loss that the adult was going through. Lincoln figured, assuming that his target was already teetering on the edge of clocking out, that trying to knock said target out with a chloroform-dampened cloth would actually speed things up.

But this is beside the point. Lincoln entered the house through the sliding glass door that separated the kitchen from the backyard. Quietly sneaking his way through the house, the disguised white-haired boy stopped in his tracks as his heart skipped a beat upon seeing faint glowing coming from the living room, along with talking. After carefully sneaking into the living room to take a look, Lincoln saw that the faint glowing, which came from a TV, was the only source of light that was in the living room, and the only occupant was an old lady who Lincoln did not recognize.

Judging by how she was sleeping, Lincoln could tell that the old lady wouldn't wake up randomly and bust him as he was here on his job. The disguised white-haired boy felt sorry for the old lady, considering what she would end up discovering the following morning. But Lincoln put thoughts like that to the side; he was here to take care of some work, and like with all of the work he did while he lived as a runaway in the city, he was going to do this professionally.

The disguised white-haired boy snuck up the staircase and reached the second floor. Walking around, Lincoln felt that he would have to randomly check rooms until he found Chandler's room. This would increase the odds that Lincoln would get caught, as opening doors would make some noise. Luckily for him, Lincoln found a door that had a sign that said 'Chandler's room' on it. After preparing a cloth by dampening it with the chloroform, Lincoln gripped the doorknob with his free hand. Slowly turning the knob, Lincoln pushed the door open and stepped into Chandler's room.

Chandler's room reminded Lincoln of his own room sort of. In fact, Lincoln felt that, if he were the only child of a very well-off family, his room would look like this more or less. It disturbed the disguised white-haired boy on some deep level that, if things had played out differently, he could have ended up similarly to Chandler. Speaking of which, Lincoln saw that the conceited boy had fallen asleep playing video games; Chandler was sitting crossed-legged on the floor, his back leaning up against the side of his bed.

Lincoln saw that Chandler, similar to the old lady downstairs, was out like a light. The conceited boy's mouth was even hanging open a bit. Acting quickly, Lincoln reached into a side pocket on the hooded jacket he wore and removed a small metal case roughly the size of a cheap deck box people used to store decks for various trading card games. Opening the case, Lincoln removed a small vial that was labeled 'cyanide'; Lincoln had snatched this from Lisa's lab (he wasn't going to ask questions about what Lisa was doing with cyanide, as doing so would trigger a slew of questions that Lincoln thought it was best not to bring up) in preparation for what he was going to do.

Gently removing the vial's small cork that kept it closed, Lincoln took it and gently poured the small amount in the vial into Chandler's mouth, allowing it to go down his throat. Lincoln quickly closed the vial back up, slipped it back into the small metal carrying case, slipped that back into his jacket's side pocket, then left the room, collected his chloroform bottle he left sitting on the floor in the hallway outside of Chandler's bedroom door, then returned to the room. The disguised white-haired boy heard some choking coming from the conceited boy, but he paid it no mind, given that he was closing his chloroform bottle back up, surprised to find that he didn't even need to bring it along in the end.

With all of his stuff safely back in his bag, Lincoln took one last look around to make sure things went as he intended; as he looked around, Lincoln saw what looked like a journal laying on Chandler's desk. Walking over, Lincoln was able to see that there was a label that said 'Chandler's Journal' on the journal's cover. Thinking that this was too good of an opportunity to pass up, Lincoln decided to take the journal with him; he already had an idea on what to say to explain how he got ahold of it.

Seeing that his work here was done, Lincoln closed the door behind him as he left Chandler's bedroom. The disguised white-haired boy went down the stairs, saw that the old lady was still heavily asleep, then quietly left the place the same way he came in. Given that everyone else in the immediate area was asleep, not one person saw Lincoln sneak in, sneak out, and off into the night, covered by the shadows.

…

The men, seven in total, were sick and fucking tired of everything they try failing to have so much as a scratching effect on that bastard ex-boss of theirs. Their first attempt to give him payback for his petty greed? It failed. Their second attempt? That selfish prick wasn't even around when it went off (no doubt he was enjoying his undue position of power). But this third attempt, oh boy, this third attempt will be the one that chinches it. Third time's the charm, as the old saying goes.

Two of the seven men were picking the lock on the front door of the house of their petty ex-boss. After hearing a faint but certain clicking, one of the men said, "Got it!" as the other man, who was doing the lockpicking, pulled his lockpicking equipment out of the lock, the other man turned to the rest of the fellows and said, "Alright, guys. We storm the place, kill everyone we find other than that fucker, then we torture the asshole until either we get bored or he dies. Sound good to you all?"

"Shouldn't we knock him out when we capture him and take him someplace secluded before we go on torturing him?" asked one of the other men in a curious tone, "I mean, it would greatly reduce the odds of someone overhearing us when we give him all of the payback that he has coming for firing us for no justifiable reason whatsoever."

The first man who spoke pointed to the man who asked the question, and was about to say something, but he stopped short to consider what the second man said. After a few seconds, the first man said, "Actually, that's a good idea." The man who did the lockpicking opened the front door, then all seven men quickly yet swiftly rushed in. One of the men spotted an elderly lady fast asleep in an armchair, apparently having fallen asleep while watching the TV, which was still playing. The man nonchalantly pulled out a gun, quickly equipped a silencer, took aim and shot the elderly lady in the head, killing her.

As that went on, the two guys who were at the door for the lockpicking rushed up the stairs, weapons drawn. The two men went about checking all of the doors. As the man who did the lockpicking checked to see where a door led, only to see that it was an upstairs bathroom, he heard his fellow call out from another room, "Whoa, the fuck happened here?" Curious, the lockpicker closed the bathroom door and went to find his fellow so he could see what was going on. As such, he found one of the doors on the second floor open.

Going into the room, the lockpicker saw that it was a young boy's room; he and his fellows did remember hearing that their bastard ex-boss had an elementary school-aged son, and that bombing the local elementary school, RWES, was their first attempt to give that petty, conceited motherfucker a middle finger; they hoped that the ex-boss's son would get seriously hurt in the attack (or to their hopes, worse than seriously hurt), but the lockpicker himself later learned shortly after the attack that the ex-boss's son was out sick that day due to having the stomach flu; from all reports, at least sixty percent of the school's student population was actually absent that day. Otherwise, the attack would have been _far_ worse.

"Dude, what the hell got your-" the Lockpicker began, but he stopped short as he saw the answer to the question he was going to ask laying on the floor of the room; a male child with reddish-brown hair was laying on the floor, still and unmoving. From the looks of it, the boy couldn't be any more than eleven years of age. There was some sort of foam in and around his mouth. The Lockpicker's fellow that was with him knelt down to check for a pulse.

"…The kid's dead," the Lockpicker's fellow remarked grimly. Getting back up, the Lockpicker's fellow turned to his friend and said, "You think the kid committed suicide?"

"Yeah, and it looks like the kid did the deed by popping a cyanide pill," the Lockpicker said. Scratching the side of his head in a manner that conveyed confusion, the Lockpicker continued, "That being said, how in the fuck did the kid get his hands on a cyanide pill?"

"No clue, man," the Lockpicker's fellow replied, gently shaking his head. Straightening himself back up, the Lockpicker's fellow said, "Well either way, our job was done for us here. We ought to check the rest of the house. We came here to find that conceited son of a bitch so we could make him pay for what he did to you, me and the rest of our group."

"Right," the Lockpicker replied with a single nod in the affirmative as he and his fellow left the room to continue to search the house.

END, BROKEN MIRROR: NEW WAR CHAPTER ELEVEN

Author's notes:

In case you were wondering, the next chapter will explain what happened at the tail end of this chapter in greater detail. As a side note, the journal that Lincoln took with him will also be a major plot point in the next chapter. A lot of things concerning what Chandler has been up to in this story's setting will be brought to light, mark my words.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Broken Mirror: New War

Chapter twelve: Settling Peace

Lincoln Loud, the only boy out of the eleven Loud siblings, got a bit of a late start on Sunday. But then again, he had some…business…that he had to take care of the previous night. He was also out rather late, and the white-haired boy was worried that at least one person would have some sort of clue as to the…nature…of his business. Luckily for him, however, no one else in the family even knew that he was out last night.

When Lincoln walked down the stairs and reached the first floor of his family's house, he was greeted by his mother Rita; like with his sisters, Lincoln decided that Rita, who had shown nothing but remorse for her part in driving him to run away and also played a significant role in going up against Lynn sr., her husband and the Loud family patriarch, when said man was being a paranoid tyrannical idiot towards the girls, was not worth staying mad at.

Really, at this point, only Lynn Sr. himself was the only person in the family that Lincoln still had any steam aimed at.

"Good morning, sweetie," Rita greeted in a friendly tone, "I take it you didn't sleep well given how late you've gotten up today?"

"Yeah, I didn't sleep well," Lincoln replied; this, of course, was a lie, as the white-haired boy did not want anyone in his family aware of what he took care of the previous night, as well as what he did while he lived as a runaway in the city. Lincoln was about to move to head into the dining room area, but before he got very far, Rita knelt down and gently wrapped her arms around him, drawing him into a hug.

"I'm sorry, Lincoln," Rita said in a gentle tone, one that carried an obvious hint of regret.

"It's…it's okay, mom," Lincoln replied in a mildly surprised and unsure tone as he patted his mother on the back with his right hand, "You…just suffered a lapse of judgment when it came to the whole bad luck deal from a while ago."

"Well, I do still feel guilty about that," Rita admitted. Letting go of her son, Rita continued as she stood up and straightened herself out, "But that wasn't the reason why I was apologizing."

This time, Lincoln wore a look that was a mix of curiosity and confusion. "…What do you mean?" Lincoln asked.

"Earlier this morning on the news," Rita began, "There was a news story about one of your classmates from school being killed last night when some men broke into his family's house."

Lincoln, of course, knew about one of his classmates over at RWES having been killed last night; it was a boy named Chandler, a conceited and smugly self-assured brat who, to the annoyance of Lincoln and a lot of the kids the white-haired boy associates with, maintained a very high level of popularity at school. The reason why Lincoln knew that Chandler had been killed last night was because it was Lincoln who killed him; that was the…business…from last night that Lincoln took care of. Yes, Lincoln expected to hear about Chandler's death. But what he _didn_ ' _t_ expect to hear about was the part about some grown men breaking into the house where Chandler's family lives.

"What…what happened, exactly?" Lincoln asked as he looked up at his mother, the news that he was just told doing a very good job at waking him up.

* * *

As it turned out, a number of men broke into the house where Chandler's family lives; it must have been sometime after Lincoln came by and took care of what he came to take care of. According to the news report, which Lincoln was able to locate on the internet, the group that broke into Chandler's family's house consisted of seven men who were fired from the sewage treatment plant where Chandler's dad works.

In fact, Chandler's dad, who had risen to a very favorable position in the management of the sewage treatment plant, was the one who fired all seven of those men. The reasons all varied, but none of the firings had any sort of actual justification; in fact, at least three of the seven firings were confirmed to have been done out of pettiness on Chandler's dad's part. When the seven men tried to complain, no one of authority believed them, due to the relatively low positions they all had prior to being fired and the fact that Chandler's dad was very high up in the hierarchy of the sewage treatment plant's management.

An investigation was launched, and evidence that was uncovered confirmed that the seven men were the ones behind the RWES bombing from a few months ago; the men all knew that their former boss had a child who attended the elementary school (they weren't aware of the child's appearance, gender or grade at the time, however), and hoped that by blasting the school to kingdom come on a school day, they would manage to severely maim (or hopefully kill) their former boss's kid. Unfortunately for them, due to the stomach flu going around at the time, their former boss's kid out sick that day. As a side note, roughly sixty percent of the school's student population was also out sick that day due to stomach flu; if it hadn't been for the stomach flu going around at the time, the bombing probably would have been much, much worse.

After they felt enough time had passed, the seven men tired once again with getting back at their former boss. In addition to being found responsible for the RWES bombing, the seven men were also found to be responsible for bombing the sewage treatment plant, their former workplace. They hoped that this would be a more direct way of getting back at their former boss, hoping that the man himself would get hurt. To the further bad luck of the seven men, their former boss wasn't at the sewage treatment plant at the time they carried out the bombing.

After enough time passed after their second failed attempt, the seven men figured that they'd go as direct of a route as possible, and just break into their former boss's home, kill his family, take him someplace private, then torture him until either he died or they get bored, at which point they'd kill him anyway. When they broke in, one of them shot and killed an elderly Jewish woman that was asleep in an armchair in the living room. This elderly Jewish lady later turned out to have been someone hired to babysit Chandler for the night; the elderly Jewish woman was someone held in high regard by Chandler's mother.

As the men searched the house in the hopes to locate their former boss, two of the men came across Chandler. However, the two men that found him claimed that he was already dead when they found the kid; one of the two men thought that Chandler had committed suicide via cyanide pill for some odd reason, if the foam coming out of Chandler's mouth as his body laid on the floor in his bedroom was any indication.

Ultimately, this third attempt of the seven men to get back at their former boss also failed, partly because their former boss and his wife decided to have some 'special time' that night and got a hotel room so they could be alone, and partly because their former boss's kid, who was the only member of their former boss's family that they came across, was already dead by the time they found him. The only person the group of men as a whole were really guilty (so they claim; a lot of people didn't believe them since a dead kid was involved) of killing that night was that elderly Jewish woman, who by the way was a Holocaust survivor.

The main reason why all of this was discovered was because, in their carelessness, none of the seven men wore anything over their hands, and as such they left prints all over the place. Upon learning this from the news article, Lincoln chuckled to himself. He wore gloves (never once taking them off while he was there) when he was at Chandler's house last night, but none of the seven men who broke in did. Lincoln wasn't caught, but all seven of the men were.

When all seven of the men were rounded up by police, a series of warrants were issued to search various properties the men all owned, and various bomb-making supplies were recovered and confiscated. The materials all matched what was used in both bombings. When the men were all questioned, they all said the same thing; that after their former boss rose to the position he got, he fired all seven of them over the course of the first two weeks of his new position; in fact, he fired two of the men during his first day in that new position. They also claimed that their former boss was clearly abusing his power, as not one of them did anything that was actually worthy of getting them fired.

This prompted a _second_ investigation, this time into Chandler's dad, the former boss of the seven men who carried out the bombings. As it turned out, the seven men were right; Chandler's dad fired all of them for trivial and/or petty reasons. Two were fired because Chandler's dad had set expectations for those two so high that no one could be reasonable expected to meet them, three were fired for somehow personally offending Chandler's dad, and the other two, who were fired on Chandler's dad's first day in his new position, were fired because, and this is a direct quote, Chandler's dad wanted to test out his new authority and to 'feel powerful'.

Although this does not excuse what any of the seven men did in any way whatsoever, if it hadn't been for Chandler's dad letting his newfound power and authority at work go to his head, then none of the things that the seven men did would have happened. The bombings wouldn't have happened, there wouldn't have been that feeling of terror in Royal Woods, and many innocent people, most of which were kids, would still be alive to this day.

Chandler's dad's boss, probably the only person at the sewage treatment plant with authority over Chandler's dad, became so pissed that he demoted Chandler's dad back to the position he used to have, while simultaneously promoting the guy that Chandler's dad competed with for that position to said position. Chandler's dad's boss said that he (Chandler's dad) should consider himself lucky that he wasn't being outright fired for the blatant abuse of power, as well as what said abuse had led to.

Chandler's mother, realizing that everything that the seven men did, both bombings, breaking into her family's house, and killing both the elderly Jewish lady and Chandler (the men all still claimed that they had nothing to do with Chandler's death), was all her husband's fault, became so furious at her husband that she decided to file for divorce. In fact, while the paperwork was being worked out, Chandler's mother packed a suitcase and moved in with her sister's family.

And so here Chandler's dad was; demoted to his old position, both his wife leaving him and his son dead, many people in the city as a whole scorned him for what his pettiness led to, and he would soon end up losing his house, as a mix of being demoted (which carried a drop to his income) and the divorce settlement would severely wreck his financial strength. He was going from being one of the most respected and financially secure men in Royal Woods to being one of the least respected and financially struggling.

It seems that when the karma stick hits someone who had managed to avoid it for the longest time, it hits them _**HARD**_.

* * *

The following Monday, Lincoln, his elementary school-aged younger sisters, and various friends of those Loud siblings were all at school, with the main topic of discussion among the student body being Chandler's death. Even though Lincoln knew about it since late Saturday night, he acted just as shocked and surprised about the news when his friends were talking about it, if only to keep up appearences.

"I still can't believe that jerk is really gone," Liam remarked as he, Lincoln, Clyde and Zach talked about their mutual enemy having died during the weekend during the recess break that happens right after lunch, "I mean, sure it's bad that he's dead. It's bad when anyone dies. But Chandler…" Doing the so-so gesture with his right hand, Liam continued, "…Ehh, he probably won't be all that missed."

"The only people I can conceivably see as really missing Chandler would be his friends and Astrid," Zach said, "The teachers and other members of the school staff will show concern given that Chandler was a student here, but in the end, it's not going to affect their lives personally." After everyone else in the group nodded in agreement with Liam, Lincoln coughed to get his friends to all focus on him.

"Would now…be a bad time to mention what I found in the school's lost and found when I was looking for a textbook that I lost?" Lincoln began, getting his three friends that were with him on the playground to all turn and face him.

…

What Lincoln ended up showing his friends was Chandler's journal (the journal still had that label that was on its cover). The white-haired boy actually didn't find the journal in the lost and found, but it was a very believable tale, especially since the only person who would have potentially seen Lincoln come in and out of the lost and found, a school security officer, was asleep at the desk. There were also no security cameras in that area, so Lincoln had a sound alibi to work with.

Lincoln and his friends figured it would be worth a hoot to take a look into the private thoughts of the late conceited boy. Sure, it was considered desecrating the memories and integrity of the deceased. But given the kind of person Chandler was when he was still alive, neither Lincoln or the white-haired boy's friends gave a damn. However, what the boys learned (well, what Clyde, Lima and Zach learned; Lincoln read all of the important parts beforehand) from reading the journal, especially some of the latter parts, disgusted them, making them see Chandler in a lower light than ever before.

"...Rusty is actually _innocent_?!" Clyde nearly exclaimed, clearly sounding righteously angry, "I can't believe it! I can't believe that Chandler framed Rusty as a bully and ultimately got him expelled from school just because he was jealous of being shown up by Rusty when they were doing fidget spinner tricks that one time! Not to mention the fact that Chandler actually went so far as to set up one of Lincoln's sisters as the bullying victim!"

"You think that's the worst of Chandler's dabbling in bullying?" Zach remarked to Clyde while gesturing to the journal, which Liam was currently holding and looking over, "Chandler admits in his journal that it was he and two of his friends that messed with that Kindergarten boy so much and so badly that the little guy ended up killing himself! Granted, Chandler also says in his journal that he was not counting on that Kindergartener committing suicide, but it still happened as a result of actions that he intentionally took!" Taking Chandler's journal from Liam, Zach said as he went over one of the journal entries related to what he said, "That has without a doubt got to be one of the single worst things that Chandler has ever done!"

"What really alarms me is how Chandler not only got into a rivalry with a middle schooler, but that he ended up winning against said middle schooler," Liam said, "I have no idea who this Francisco fellow is, but he sure got the short end of the stick when Chandler decided to tango with him." Lincoln nodded in agreement with Liam; sometime after Lincoln ran away from home, Chandler started something or a rivalry with Francisco, mostly due to the fact that their respective dads were competing for some position at their place of work at the time.

Various incidents that put Francisco in the spot of a Heel, such as trying to cheat in a Kendo tournament, trying to get someone he competed against in a student body presidential election over at RWMS seriously hurt so that they'd be force to drop out, and so-on was actually the work of Chandler who, on every occasion, had framed Francisco of the wrong-doings. In fact, the only altercation between the two boys where Chandler did _not_ set Francisco up was this one incident, shortly after Chandler's dad got the promotion, where Francisco caught Chandler alone one day after school and beat him up. And even then, Chandler was able to work that to his advantage, getting the thirteen-year-old boy arrested and sent to juvie.

Chandler also talked about one other event in his journal, before anything about his rivalry with Francisco popped up. It was an incident that led Lincoln to believe that the rivalry between Chandler and Francisco actually started before either boy was actually aware of it. Chandler says in his journal that his cousin Kara, who is a seventh grader over at RWMS, was on a youth baseball team that, under the coach's instruction, was secretly cheating in order to rack up wins.

Kara didn't commit any of the cheating herself, but that was because she didn't really care about sports at all; she was on the team because her father (who was Chandler's uncle), a major sports nut, was trying to force his love of sports onto Kara. The thirteen-year-old girl would have loved to have taken any chance she saw to expose her team's cheating, as it would have gotten her team disqualified from playing for the remainder of the season, thus leaving her free from having to play any sports, but her coach and the team members that were in on the cheating would have decried her as a whistle-blower and would strive to make her reputation in Royal Woods tank.

Also, Kara's father would probably get very mad at his daughter if he found out that she revealed her team's cheating so she wouldn't have to play sports; knowing the kind of guy that Kara's father is, he probably wouldn't care if his daughter was on a youth sports team that was cheating, so long as his daughter was being made to embrace his passion for sports. When Kara told her younger cousin Chandler about this, he came up with a surprisingly effective yet simple idea to not only get Kara out of doing something that she absolutely hated, but to make sure that Kara wouldn't get in trouble for it.

During the next game that Kara's team played, Chandler went to a few officials presiding over the game and told them that he overheard two boys on one of the teams talking about various methods of cheating that was commonly thought of when thinking of cheating in baseball. Chandler then told the officials that after he saw the two boys leave a locker room, he snuck in and checked to see if what the boys said about cheating was true. As such, he said that he found various things such as sand paper and a jar of Vaseline.

When the officials checked this out, they found that not only was Chandler right in his claims, but that further investigation revealed that the cheating team was also using methods such as cork-filled baseball bats and pine tar. Also, they ended up discovering that the coach of the cheating team was earning money by making bets on the games that his team played in. As a side note, this cheating was happening for real. Chandler (or Kara, for that matter) did not set the team up in any way; in fact, Chandler was actually doing good by exposing the team's cheating.

With the team's cheating exposed, they were disqualified from the game they were playing about halfway through the game's overall duration, and even ended up being disqualified from playing for the rest of the season, thus freeing Chandler's cousin from her obligation without risking getting her into any trouble. Chandler also said that as he talked to Kara when the game was ended, they saw a boy on Kara's team get slapped in the face by a girl from the opposing team before said girl ran off crying. Chandler didn't remember either the boy or the girl from that incident up until, when he was going on about Francisco getting arrested for assaulting him, he recognized Francisco as the boy who got slapped in the face by a girl.

Reading this part in Chandler's journal, Lincoln knew full well who the girl that slapped Francisco in the face was.

Chandler also went on in his journal about how after her youth baseball team was disqualified, Kara was forced by her dad to find some other sport to throw herself into, never realizing that his daughter secretly abhorred sports and didn't tell him so out of fear of making him mad (a fear that Lincoln, as he continued to read Chandler's journal further, discovered was eventually proven to be well-founded).

Kara ended up picking up Kendo, and even though she found the prospect of practicing a sword-based martial art to be interesting, she'd still rather be holed up in her bedroom all day, playing on her video game console. Kara only stuck with the martial art long enough to take part in one tournament at the local community center (Kara was naturally eliminated from the tournament in one of the earlier rounds, although to her credit she did make it past round one). That tournament also had Francisco as a competitor, and Chandler, in his continuing rivalry with Francisco, decided to frame the thirteen-year-old boy for cheating. As a side note, Chandler didn't go into any further detail about his cousin's only go at Kendo.

After that, Lincoln and his friends decided to close Chandler's journal. "So…what do we do now?" Zach asked, "I mean, this journal has a lot of proof that a lot of what happened was all Chandler's doing, specifically getting Rusty expelled from school and driving that one boy that was in Kindergarten to the point that said boy ended up committing suicide." Gesturing to the journal, Zach said, "We need to get this information out to the public."

"Totally," Clyde remarked as he and the other boys all nodded in agreement. As Clyde held a hand to his chin, he wore a look of deep consideration as he said, "But how can we go about getting this info in Chandler's journal out to the public?"

"…" As Lincoln looked at his friends with something of a deadpan expression, the white-haired boy said, "…I think I have an idea."

…

Over in another area of the playground, the Loud twins Lola and Lana were playing around with a few of their classmates. As the first-graders all played around, Lincoln came walking up while calling out, "Hey, Lola! I need your help with something!"

* * *

Sometime during the final class period of that school day, the intercom turned on and Lola, who was the one using it, read from Chandler's journal, specifically the passages that were marked out by her older brother ahead of time. At first, no one paid it too much mind, assuming that it was just some spoiled little brat reading someone's private diary or journal over the intercom in a bid to embarrass the book's owner in front of everyone.

However, the students started paying attention when they recognized that it must have been Chandler's journal that was being read over the intercom, since a few passages mentioned Chandler's two primary goon-friends by name, along with the fact that whoever wrote those passages referred to Astrid Ace as 'my girlfriend' on a few occasions that took place after she and Chandler started to go out.

As the journal entries went on, Lola (who most of the school wasn't all that familiar with) started to sound more confused and concerned. She even became disgusted when she reached the part that proved Chandler and his goon-friends had actually been the ones who bullied her older sister Lucy but framed Rusty for it. And when Lola was reading aloud the part about how Chandler and his goon-friends had bullied Hugo Ashveil, who was a _four_ - _year_ - _old boy_ , to the point that he ended up killing himself, the pageant winning Loud sister started to cry. Lola was able to power through her crying, and finish reading the journal entries that were marked off ahead of time by her older brother.

After Lola was done broadcasting parts of Chandler's journal over RWES's intercom system and turned said system off, Lincoln, Clyde, Zach and Liam, all four of which stood nearby while Lola did her work, congratulated her for getting the word out on some of the late conceited boy's atrocities. "…Good job, Lola," Lincoln said as he walked up to his little sister and gently patted her on the back, "This will help get justice for a lot of people who've been wronged."

"I s-still can't believe t-that someone would a-actually be s-so c-cruel," Lola said, stammering a bit due to still crying from when she went over the part that talked about Hugo's suicide.

"What I can't believe is that we were able to get away with broadcasting parts of Chandler's journal over the school's intercom system," Zach remarked casually.

"I showed Principal Huggins some of the journal entries, and after he confirmed that it was Chandler's, he agreed to let me do this with all of you," Lincoln remarked, "It helps that he owes me and Clyde a few favors. Also, he's going to be drilling Chandler's goons for information later, so expect to see some results." Gently laying a hand on his crying little sister's right shoulder, Lincoln said in a concerned and gentle tone as Lola looked up at him, "Are you going to need some time to calm down, Lola?"

Sniffling a little more, Lola replied, "I-it's still so s-sad what happened, L-Lincoln."

Sighing in a resigned tone, Lincoln said in an understanding tone, "I know, Lola." Kneeling down to hug Lola, Lincoln continued in the same tone, "I know." The white-haired boy continued to hug and reassure his little sister for the next minute or so, while his friends all watched on as he tried to put Lola at ease. It tore at the boys' hearts, but it was also in a way a heartwarming scene.

* * *

Chandler's goon-friends were brought in and drilled for info about their involvement with some of the events in Chandler's journal that were broadcasted over the school's intercom system, specifically the part detailing Hugo Ashveil's suicide. Principal Huggins brought up how one student claimed to have caught them and Chandler picking on the late four-year-old, and when said student, who turned out to be Lana, was called in to give her side of the story, she basically repeated what she claimed when some of the teachers shot her down on the basis that none of them ever knew Chandler to have ever gotten up to any sort of trouble.

As a result of their involvement in some of the acts mentioned in the parts of Chandler's journal that were broadcasted, the late conceited boy's goon-friends saw their rep at school plummet. In addition to being drilled for info on their involvement in the Hugo incident, Chandler's goon-friends were also drilled for info on their part in framing former RWES student Rusty Spokes as a bully a while ago.

The goon-friends ended up fessing up that they were the ones who took one of the garbage cans at the school, picked it up and shoved it down over Lucy Loud when one of the garbage cans at the school was checked; all of the garbage cans at RWES are those large, hard plastic heavy ones that come in various colors such as blue. Such cans cannot be effectively lifted by one student acting on his or her own, which is what was implied due to Rusty being framed, due to how much one of those cans weighed, along with how hard it would be for one student to try and manage something of that size on their own.

The goons were severely disciplined, but ultimately not expelled. But then again, given how the goons ended up becoming scorned throughout the school by the rest of the student body, it could not be effectively determined if the goons not being expelled was a good thing or a bad thing. Additionally, the school contacted Rusty's parents and told them about what they discovered about Rusty's expulsion and how he was actually innocent of what he was expelled over. When they were told everything, to say that Rusty's parents were angry…would be an understatement.

Fortunately, the school was able to avoid too much of a scandal by agreeing to reinstate Rusty as a student; the older Spokes boy returned to school the Monday following parts of Chandler's journal being read over the intercom. The rest of the student body, now knowing that Rusty was actually innocent the whole time, all felt really sorry for ostracizing him prior to his (undeserved) expulsion, especially Clyde, Zach, Liam, Rusty's own brother Rocky, and Lucy; Lincoln was the only one to not apologize to the older Spokes boy, but then again, Lincoln was living in the city that he ran away to at the time all of that business went down, so he never did anything to Rusty that was worth apologizing for.

The student body as a whole was almost about to ostracize Astrid Ace, out of her being associated with Chandler and his goons due to being Chandler's girlfriend while he was still alive. However, this was thankfully averted when it was revealed that the white-haired Ace girl was essentially trapped into the position, and that everything she tried to avert ending up being with the late conceited boy ended up failing. Also helping Astrid was the fact that she is Ronnie Anne's bestie, and many students feared getting on the Hispanic tomboy's bad side.

When a few students asked her how she felt, Astrid said that she was ultimately relieved that she would no longer have to put up with Chandler, although she did admit that, regardless of what Chandler was involved in, him being dead was a bit too much. The last that any of the other students at RWES heard about Astrid, she had her eye on a boy that she admitted to have a crush on since before she was essentially forced to go out with Chandler.

During the first recess of the day that Rusty returned to school, he met up with Lincoln, Zach and Liam; the boys had no idea where Clyde was, but the four boys all assumed that their dark-skinned friend would eventually join them. "Did one of you guys really find Chandler's journal in the school's lost and found office?" Rusty asked as he, Lincoln, Liam and Zach hung out near the tetherball poles.

"It was Lincoln," Liam said to Rusty while pointing to the white-haired boy, "He even got one of his little sisters to read some of the journal's parts over the school's intercom. …I believe that her name was Leni."

"It was Lola," Lincoln corrected in something of a deadpan tone, a mildly unamused look on his face, "Leni is one of my older sisters who goes to Royal Woods High."

* * *

Chandler's funeral was held that Friday afternoon, but other than Chandler's various goon-friends and the respective parents of those boys, only members of Chandler's family showed up. It was the first time since before news of what her (soon to be ex) husband had done was revealed that Chandler's mother was willing to be in the same room as Chandler's father. Similar to Chandler's mother, Kara's mother was also seeking separation from her respective husband, although this was due to various marital problems rather than because Kara's dad screwed up big time like Chandler's dad did.

During the funeral, it was mentioned in passing that not only does Kara want her mother to have full custody of her, but that she doesn't even want her father to have visiting rights. The thirteen-year-old girl gave the usual 'it's dad's fault that the divorce is happening' shtick, and pretty much everyone believed her. However, in reality, the reason that Kara wanted her mother to have full custody of her was because she wouldn't push Kara into sports, and she had no problem with Kara playing video games all day, provided that Kara took care of her homework beforehand.

Speaking of which, given that Kara was the only member of the family as a whole who was in his general age group (she was roughly two years older than him), most of Chandler's belongings ended up being given to Kara. This included all of his video game stuff, such as his Playtendo Swap system and the various games that went with it. Kara also got various books, all the money that Chandler had saved up in a small crock jar in his room (A little over seven-hundred dollars?! Seriously?!), and a few collectable items such as a few cool toys, plus a few tins and two binders full of Yugioh cards. The only possessions of Chandler's which Kara did not inherit from him was the furniture that was in his bedroom, although for some odd reason Kara got the bed sheet set that was on Chandler's bed.

No one at RWES knew of what happened at Chandler's funeral except for Chandler's various goon-friends. But then again, those boys were the only ones who still cared about the late conceited boy, having been with him through thick and thin and still seeing Chandler as a true friend. And since no one at RWES was willing to so much as talk to any members of Chandler's old posse (Astrid, who was technically a member of said posse, was the sole exception), what happened during Chandler's final moments before he was interred over at the at Royal Woods Cemetery would remain a mystery.

When Lincoln got out of school on Friday, as he walked home with his sisters Lucy, Lana, Lola and Lisa, they all saw a black Hearse car drive by, followed by a few other cars. "That's the kind of car I want to get when I turn sixteen and get my license," Lucy remarked while pointing at the Hearse as she and her siblings watched the cars all drive past them.

"Given your interest in the macabre and the fact that you even have your own funeral service, it does not surprise me in the least that you would want a funeral Hearse as your first car," Lisa remarked in her usual dry monotone. The twins then proceeded to ask why Lucy would want to get a funeral car out of all possible cars when she becomes old enough to drive. As Lucy, the twins and Lisa all started to talk amongst themselves, Lincoln turned his head in the direction in which the Hearse and the cars that followed it all drove in.

"… _Hmm_ ," Lincoln thought as he turned his head back around, " _So long_ , _Chandler_."

* * *

The following Wednesday evening, as the Loud siblings were all hanging around in the living room, the front door opened, and Lynn Sr., clearly looking exhausted after a long day at work, came walking into the house. He was also carrying what looked like a large plastic variety case that held a lot of sushi.

"Hey, daddy!" Lola greeted when she and her siblings saw their father enter the house, "How was work today?"

"Well other than an incident where I accidentally spilled some mead on a customer and this one case where Sergei mixed up one customer's mochi order with another customer's oden order, today went pretty well," Lynn Sr. replied.

"Wait a minute," Luan began in a confused tone, "None of that sounded like it would appear at a Hawaiian and Russian fusion restaurant such as Aloha Comrade."

"Luan, Aloha Comrade literally went out of business due to being unable to keep up with competition and being unable to afford to stay open," Lori explained to her comedic sister, "Dad works at Odin-Dono's now, remember?"

"Hold on a minute," Lincoln began, "Since when did he work at the place that the Aces own?"

"That's…a bit of a story, Lincoln," Lori replied as she began to tell Lincoln what happened.

(FLASHBACK)

The Ace twins, Allison and Aggro, were over at the Loud residence sometime during the previous Saturday, while most of the Loud siblings were off doing their own thing. Only Lori and Luna, who attended RWHS same as the Ace twins and Amy, plus Lily who was in her and Lisa's room taking a nap at the time, were present when the Ace twins visited. Standing in front of Allison and Aggro were Lori, Luna and Lynn Sr.

"…So, Mr. Loud," Aggro began in a neutral yet cool tone as he addressed the Loud family patriarch, "I was told by Lori and Luna while they were bringing Allison and I over that you wished to apologize to me." Crossing his arms over his chest, the Swedish/Japanese teenage boy asked, "Is this accurate?"

"Yes," Lynn Sr. replied in a resigned tone, sounding like a man who was very much humbled.

"When Aggro told me what you did, I was beyond disgusted with you," Allison snarled in an angry, disappointed tone at the Loud patriarch, "You threatened his life to make him leave, even though he was a guest who was invited by Lori and her sisters. And with a handgun, no less." Her glaring gaze at Lynn Sr. narrowing in a way to convey her feelings of disgust, Allison said, "You lack honor."

"Allison literally has a point, dad," Lori began, "There was no need to threat-"

"You could have at least had the decency to threaten my brother with a true warrior's weapon," Allison remarked as she cut Lori off in the process, "Like a battle-axe or a war-hammer or a-"

"Thank you, Allison," Aggro remarked in a dry tone, getting his older twin sister to stop, "But I think that the point has already been made." Turning to face Lynn Sr., the male Ace twin continued, "Anywho, we ought to get back to the subject at hand. You're going to apologize, are you not, Mr. Loud?"

"Yes, yes, I am," Lynn Sr. said in the same humbled, defeated tone that he's been using so far. After sighing, Lynn Sr. said, "Forcing you to leave like that, even though my daughters had invited you over, because of the competitiveness my co-workers and I over at Aloha Comrade had against your family's restaurant was wrong of me, and I apologize for that."

"Aloha Comrade?" Allison repeated in a confused tone, getting everyone to turn and face her, "Didn't that place go out of business late yesterday evening?"

"Yes, the restaurant where me and my siblings' dad worked literally went out of business," Lori said to her friend, "And that leads us to part of the reason why Luna and I asked you to come over here." Taking a breath to calm her nerves, Lori explained, "Remember when you told us that there was a cook position available at Odin-Dono's? Well, Luna and I were hoping that since your mother is in charge of the place, that you two might be able to convince her to hire our dad if he apologized to you for how he acted."

"Seriously?" Allison remarked dryly, crossing her arms over her chest. Giving the oldest Loud sibling a serious look, Allison continued, "I know that he's your dad and that he needs a job now that the restaurant he worked for had to close its doors, but he did threaten my brother."

"Oh, come on, brah," Luna said with a mild hint of pleading in her tone. Pointing to her dad while still facing Allison, Luna continued, "Things will get tight around here unless pops here gets a job, and he's really good as a cook."

Aggro wore a look of consideration as he looked at the expressions on the faces of Lori and Luna. The two Loud girls were clearly looking like they were pleading. Shifting to look at the Loud patriarch, Aggro saw that he wore a look of being humbled and defeated, which went well with the tone he was using earlier. Turning back to regard Lori and Luna, Aggro said, "…Has your father apologized to Leni-chan for what his actions put her through yet?"

"Huh?" Lori asked, "Well yeah, dad did apologize to Leni, but-"

"And would you say that said apology was sufficient?" Aggro went on as he continued his line of questioning, interrupting Lori in the process.

"Yeah, I'd certainly say so," Luna remarked to the male Ace twin.

Turning to face Lynn Sr., Aggro said, "…Alright, now this question is for you, Mr. Loud." When the Loud patriarch looked up to Aggro (Lynn Sr. was previously looking down at the floor out of shame), Aggro asked, "Are there any other people who worked at Aloha Comrade, aside from yourself, that are currently looking for work as well?"

"What…what do you mean?" Lynn Sr. asked.

"There are actually multiple positions available at Odin-Dono's right now," Aggro explained, "At least two of which are full-time cook positions. You and the other people who worked at Aloha Comrade are obviously experienced at working in a restaurant, and experience like that could be used over at Odin-Dono's. If any of your co-workers from Aloha Comrade are wanting it, I'll put in a good word for them while I'm recommending you to my mother for consideration in hiring to one of the full-time cook positions."

"Are you serious?" Lori said as she and Luna were clearly elated that Aggro was willing to recommend their dad for a job at the Ace family restaurant.

Turning to face the present Loud sisters, Aggro replied calmly, "I am."

"Thank you so much, young man," Lynn Sr. said to the male Ace twin, "Seriously. This is just the break that my family and I need right now."

"No problem," Aggro remarked. Turning to face Allison, Aggro said, "We ought to get going back home now, Allison."

"Right," the female Ace twin replied with a nod in the affirmative as she and her brother turned to leave the Loud family residence.

(END FLASHBACK)

"…Surprisingly, dad's earning a little more working at Allison's family's place than he did working at Aloha Comrade," Lori said as she finished telling her story to Lincoln.

"Yeah, Sergei couldn't afford to pay me as much as I'm earning now," Lynn Sr. remarked, "Speaking of which, it's really bummed Sergei that he went from owning a restaurant to working for a restaurant. I feel bad for him." Looking to the variety case of sushi that he held, Lynn Sr. continued, "Oh, I was able to bring this from work." The Loud siblings all gathered around and saw, through the clear plastic top of the case, that there was at least forty plus pieces of sushi, one of which was noticeably larger than any of the other pieces.

"Wow, look at all of the sushi!" Lola remarked as she and her siblings all looked at what their dad had brought home with him.

"Yeah, Aggro handed this off to me right as I was leaving," Lynn Sr. explained, "He also said that the big piece was for Leni."

"Dang it," the Loud sisters other than Leni all said in unison; Leni herself cheered over getting the big piece. As for Lincoln, he thought that it was sweet of Leni's crush to go through the trouble of getting this sushi platter prepared for the Louds, and even had a special piece set up for Leni.

The sole Loud boy thought that his ditzy but kindhearted older sister deserved the big piece of sushi, especially considering what she had been through.

* * *

The following afternoon, Lincoln was sitting in the living room watching TV. He had finished all of his homework and was silently grateful that Lisa took care of his homework for him while he was living in the city as a runaway. Anywho, as Lincoln and his elementary school-aged sisters watched TV, their older sister Lynn came walking into the house, having returned from being out somewhere. "How was your date with Ulfric?" Lola asked as soon as Lynn closed the door.

"It was awesome," Lynn said, "Apparently, Ulfric likes veggie grinders the same way I like meatball grinders." With a mildly curious look on her face, Lynn added, "Ulfric probably also likes honey, since he got honey-flavored tea as his beverage and he got the honey mustard topping for his grinder at the sub sandwich place we went to for lunch."

"Well he's big, strong and somewhat scary-looking like a bear, and bears like honey," Lana remarked, "That might explain it." The other Loud sisters younger than Lincoln all agreed with what Lana said, and Lynn, finding a bit of humor in what her tomboyish little sister said, also found herself agreeing with the idea.

"And relax, girls," Lynn said to her sisters, "Ulfric is not scary."

"She's right," Lincoln stated to the younger sisters, "I've met Ulfric a few times, and he's a pretty solid guy. There's no need to worry about him."

Lynn nodded in thanks to Lincoln for his support before she took her leave to head into the kitchen to grab a snack. After Lynn was out of sight, Lincoln and the younger sisters turned back to face the TV. While he watched the TV, Lincoln thought about how his athletic older sister was doing right now.

After Lola read parts of Chandler's journal over the RWES intercom, the journal was discreetly brought back over to the Loud family's residence, mostly because Lola wanted to show her and Lincoln's other sisters the parts in the journal that proved that Rusty was actually framed for bullying Lucy (it was Lincoln's intention to bring the journal back to their family's place anyway). After the sisters as a whole were done, Lynn wanted to go over the parts that went on about Francisco.

It disgusted Lynn to confirm that Francisco's team really was cheating, meaning that his part in knowing about it but not doing anything about it, even though he did none of the actual cheating himself, was real. But what _really_ disgusted Lynn was that pretty much everything else that Francisco was supposedly guilty of was actually just Chandler having set Francisco up as a fall guy in order to make Francisco, and by extension his (Francisco's) dad, look bad.

Granted, Lynn still wanted nothing to do with Francisco anymore because of the fact that he was still honestly an accessory to something that Lynn considered to be a very serious crime (cheating in sports). However, learning that Francisco was innocent of everything else did a lot to diminish the athletic Loud sibling's anger towards her former crush. She may still no longer want anything to do with Francisco, but now Lynn's desire to put him six feet under was gone.

…As was Lincoln's desire to put Francisco six feet under for breaking Lynn's heart.

Getting up from the sofa, Lincoln walked into the kitchen, and saw that Lynn was grabbing one of the brownie snack cakes. "How many of those are left?" Lincoln asked before Lynn could even get the wrapper off of the snack cake, getting her to turn around and look at him.

"Oh, hey Linc," Lynn greeted, "I had to open a box to get this, so there should still be quite a few packs left."

"Let's try to make sure Leni gets a pack," Lincoln remarked, "She didn't get any from any of the last three boxes, so she's due to get one of the brownie snack cakes."

"That's fair," Lynn replied with a nod. After Lincoln walked over to where the snack cabinet was and grabbed a brownie snack cake for himself, he turned around to face Lynn.

"So…are you doing okay now?" Lincoln asked. Lynn could tell what her younger brother was getting at, given the look that he was giving her.

With a sigh, Lynn said, "Yeah. I still would have ended things with Francisco after finding out about his part in what his baseball team was doing anyway, but the fact that some brat who's dead now made Francisco look worse and worse…" Sighing in a resigned tone, Lynn said, "I've really messed up."

"Chandler had a lot of people duped, Lynn," Lincoln pointed out, "Duping people was a skill that Chandler had clearly mastered." Laying a hand on Lynn's left shoulder in a reassuring gesture, Lincoln continued, "There's no need to beat yourself up over this, Lynn. No one can really be flawless."

"I know," the athletic Loud sister replied in a knowing tone, "And I'm clearly the poster child for that idea." Sighing once again, Lynn said as hints of tears appeared in the corners of her eyes, "Lincoln, seriously. I am so sorry about what I did that day. The threatening you into coming to my softball game, the proclaiming you as bad luck, everything."

"Lynn…" Lincoln began, but he was cut off as Lynn wasn't done yet.

"And that's not all of it, either," Lynn went on, "There were the times I was way too rough with you while playing sports, and the Dutch ovens, and the-" This time, it was Lynn who was cut off, but it was because Lincoln walked up to her, gently threw his arms around her, and drew her into a gentle hug.

"…There's no need to beat yourself up, Lynn," Lincoln said in a gentle and understanding tone, unknowingly drawing more tears out of his athletic older sister. The two siblings stood there in the kitchen for a bit, hugging each other.

* * *

"He _still_ isn't holding what we did to him against us?" Lola asked in a tone that clearly conveyed surprised shock; after the family went to bed, the Loud sisters all assembled in Lori and Leni's room for a secret sibling meeting, one that they did not want Lincoln at since they were going to talk about something nice to surprise him with.

"Well he did say that considering what we went through while he was gone, he felt that we suffered more than we should have," Lynn pointed out. Standing up from where she sat on the floor, Lynn continued, "Even so, we're still going to try and do something really nice for Lincoln, right?" The rest of the sisters all gave a unanimous response that made it clear that they still wanted to try and make things right with their only brother.

"That's good," Lynn said as she sat back down on the floor.

"Lynn's literally right," Lori said to the other girls, "We made a mess, and we're going to be cleaning it up. You all ready for what we have planned for tomorrow after we all get back from our respective schools?" After all of the girls nodded in agreement, Lori said, "Good. Now then, we ought to get to bed now. Head back to your rooms, everyone." All of the other Loud sisters got up and proceeded to make their way out of the room.

"Leni, don't leave," Lori said as Leni tried getting up, "This is literally your room, too."

END, BROKEN MIRROR: NEW WAR

Author's notes:

Well, this is it, the last chapter of 'Broken Mirror: New War'. A common issue I saw pop up was that the original 'Broken Mirror' didn't last as long as some people would have liked, so I tried to make this one longer. However, quantity does not necessarily equal quality; how well each chapter of the story, not to mention the story as a whole, did is up to you, the readers. Now then, since this tale is finished, I can now put some attention on other things I've got on my plate, such as other tales (which will have to wait for the time being).

Catch you all later.

…Oh, before I forget, I figured that there might be a few questions that some of you might be asking, so I'll take some time here to anticipate some of those questions and answer them as best as I can;

Q. Will anyone other than Lincoln ever know of what he did while he lived in the city as a runaway, as well as the fact that he was Broken Mirror?

A. Sorry, but it was never my intention for anyone to ever find out about that in-story. If that did happen, then Lincoln's sub sequent arrest would eventually lead to what the Loud parents are guilty of being revealed, which would lead to the Loud parents getting arrested, which would lead to the family being broken up. So, long story short, no one will ever find out Lincoln's secret identity or what he did while acting under said identity because the Loud family would be destroyed otherwise, and I'd rather they not get torn apart.

Q. Why was Lynn Sr. acting so defensive/paranoid/tyrannical/idiotic about the competition between the fusion restaurants in Royal Woods? Doesn't he have his dream of opening up his own restaurant? He even got that investment from that one guy in that one episode.

A. Well yeah, Lynn Sr. does have that dream of his to have his own restaurant. But at this point, he is nowhere near ready to open up his own restaurant. Also, in a hypothetical situation in which Lynn Sr. did have his own restaurant, it would also be competing against Odin-Dono's. Even if it fared as well as Jean Juan's, Lynn Sr.'s restaurant would still not be as popular as the Swedish and Japanese place. In fact, if Lynn Sr. did have his own restaurant in the story and it was losing business to the Ace's place, then the Loud patriarch would have acted even worse than he did here. (Kudos to StevenTLawson for giving me the idea for this question with his review on ch.2. Thanks for reminding me about Lynn Sr. having a dream to open his own restaurant, I actually forgot about it. Also, I actually enjoyed reading your review on ch.2.).

Q. Who's that Kara girl again and why is she Chandler's cousin?

A. Kara is an OC that I made mainly to be a supporting character to Chandler. She first appears in 'Restored Image', another one of my Loud House stories. If you want to know what Kara looks like, she basically looks like Kanna Kamui from _Miss Kobayashi_ ' _s Dragon Maid_ , except all of the parts that aren't white are green, the parts that are white stay white, and Kara lacks horns and a tail (Kara is a human, obviously).

Q. Wait a minute, didn't Lincoln's list of people he'd want to kill if he ever returned to Royal Woods also include Rusty, Francisco and Lynn Sr.? Why didn't he kill any of them?

A. Rusty was spared because he was discovered to actually be innocent (a good thing Lincoln went after Chandler first, huh?). Francisco was spared because, aside from whatever involvement he had with his baseball team's cheating, every bad thing that was connected to him ended up being discovered to have happened because Chandler had set Francisco up; also, a lot of Lynn's anger and bitterness towards Francisco had died down when said info on her ex-crush was made public (if Lynn was still upset enough with Francisco, then Lincoln would have killed him because how dare he break Lynn's heart!). Lynn Sr. was spared for two reasons; one, he's the head of the Loud family and if he died then his surviving relatives would have to deal with a lot of crap (not to mention the death of their father/husband), and two, after being told by his older sisters how Lynn Sr. had humbled himself when apologizing to the Ace twins, Lincoln decided that Lynn Sr., at least mildly, was starting to make up for his idiocy.

Q. Which OCs are related to who?

A. Ulfric Aesir is an only child, as is Mitzie Cornwell. Kara is Chandler's cousin, like I said before. The Aces are all siblings. The minor antagonists Biff and Chris are both only childs as well, but they won't be popping up anymore. Other than that, any named OC I use in my Loud House stories will be one-shot characters unless I say otherwise, and I don't really care enough to go into detail for a one-shot OC character unless the chapter they appear in is going to revolve around them.

Q. Why is Lily wanting to play a role in trying to make things up to Lincoln? Lily shouldn't have to do anything; she's just a baby, after all.

A. Yes, I acknowledge that this is a very valid point. It's also a point that I actually strongly agree with. However, has anyone ever stop to consider what Lily might think in a situation such as what was going on in this story? Lily has proven to be rather smart/perceptive for a child her age and given how some of her older sisters behave, I wouldn't be surprised if Lily has some degree of pride. For all any of us know, Lily may want to do something nice for Lincoln anyway. Also, can you imagine how cute it would be if Lily tried to do something nice for her older brother?

Q. Why didn't the sisters do anything in the story to make up for what they did to Lincoln? You said they were going to do so.

A. Yes, I did say that. And the Loud sisters ARE going to do a proper job of making up for what they did to Lincoln. However, I was going to cover that in a future story. Speaking of future stories, I also have two short spin-off stories set in this universe in mind; both will be five chapters or less in length. One will be featuring the aforementioned Kara, and the other one will be featuring Aggro.

Q. I noticed that you uploaded chapters eight, nine, ten, eleven and twelve all on 6-28-2018. I'm just wondering, why did you upload the remaining chapters and finish the story in such a short burst of time?

A. You can find the explanation by checking out my profile (depending on how soon you read this, you may have to wait a bit before my profile is updated).


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